While a final inquiry report into the June 29 Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh that killed 27 CRPF personnel is awaited, it is learnt that the road opening party which was ambushed sent out an SOS on the wireless but reinforcements failed to reach in time.
Another contingent, which had safely cleared the area ahead of the group that got ambushed in Narayanpur district, also did not respond to the SOS, apparently claiming that it would have given away their position to the Naxals, compromising their own safety.
There are also reports that Special Police Officers (SPOs) accompanying this CRPF team had suggested a different route. The idea, however, was turned down given the additional distance the party would have needed to trek, sources said.
With its personnel being increasingly targeted in Naxal strongholds, the CRPF, it is learnt, has proposed that camps located in interior areas of the state will have to be manned by at least two companies (around 200 personnel) instead of the current practice where a single company generally mans these posts.
Many of the 40-odd CRPF camps located in the interior areas of Bastar will be the first to implement this change in strategy, sources said.
The CRPF is also learnt to have proposed that only those camps located alongside roads be manned by a single company. The broad idea behind this shift, sources said, is to ensure that the force is not spread out too thinly in vulnerable areas where chances of conflict are much more.
Union home minister P Chidambaram had recently said that paramilitary forces should be deployed ?only when there is an operational objective or a developmental objective?.
While the CRPF and Chhattisgarh government have already had discussions on the new redeployment strategy, Union home secretary GK Pillai, who is visiting Chhattisgarh to take stock of anti-Naxal operations, is also likely to work out modalities for the new strategy with the state government. This includes a proposal to depute senior state police officials with CRPF contingents in vulnerable areas.