New Delhi, Jan 26: Giving a new mantra to over 70,000 CRPF troops engaged in anti-Naxal operations, its chief K Vijay Kumar has asked them to turn 'junglee' (inhabitants of forests) and hit the Maoists "hard" before eliminating them.
Kumar, who took over the reins of the force after the paramilitary suffered its biggest ever setback in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada where Naxals ambushed 75 men in 2010, has asked his men to be like hunters, who hide in the area of the hunt and ultimately "neutralise" it.
"Your adversary is far too inferior than you- in training, in equipment, in physical strength, in tactics, in weaponry, in number, in food he takes. He cannot give you a face to fight. He believes in hiding, hitting and running. This is his strength.
"Let us also modify our tactics- be like hunters, hide in his area and hit him hard. Learn to be a junglee," Kumar said in his recent official communication to his troops to boost their morale.
More than 70 CRPF battalions are deployed in various states, difficult terrains and dense forests to undertake anti-Maoist offensives and Kumar has made it a practice to write to them every month, since he took over in October 2010.
Decoding the Naxal modus-operandi, Kumar, who is credited to have eliminated forest brigand Veerappan as head of the STF in 2004, said, "Just like a snail, let us carry our rations and load on our back and stay in jungle for longer duration, invisible, silent to let him fall in our trap and hit him hard, pushing him back.
"The harder we push, the more of them (Naxals) will get neutralised. The more of them get neutralised, the fewer of us will have casualities. So remember pushing means fewer casualities...Continue it in every skirmish he (Naxals) dares to have with you," the Director General wrote to them in a signed letter.
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