How Saranda was won

RANCHI: If claims of the police are to be believed, then for the first time, security forces have reined in the CPI (Maoists) who had gained control of the near 700 hills in the dense forests of Saranda, in the longest ever anti-Naxal operation called Operation Monsoon.
Security forces claimed they have virtually pushed the rebels out of their area of dominance, which in the parlance of the rebels is referred to as liberated zone.
Saranda is spread over 85,500 hectares along the border of Jharkhand and Orissa where neither the police nor any government machinery ventured in the past one decade. This gave the Maoists the liberty to run the area from over a dozen camps, including their Eastern Regional Bureau headquarters.
The forest cover, which is home to one of the finest iron ore reserves, hardly has half-a-dozen notified and mapped villages. As far as government amenities are concerned, there are few schools, colleges or hospitals within a radius of 40 km of the forest.
Researchers believe that it was in 2000, when four Red ideologues, including one Sandeep, entered the forests claiming they were priests and took advantage of the absence of government machinery there. The villagers, mostly tribals, welcomed them with open arms for taking up their cause and participated in their indoctrination meetings.
Two frontal organizations of the CPI (Maoist), the Kisan Krantikari Committee (KKC) and Nari Mukti Sangh (NMS), started spreading tentacles and recruited hundreds of youths. Small local disputes were settled with the help of KKC and NMS and land was distributed among the landless.
Gradually, Maoism took its shape and on April 27, 2002, a major IED blast was triggered at Bitkilsoy under Manoharpur police station limits in which 26 police personnel were killed. With the blasts, the Maoists started flexing their muscles and then unleashed violence in the mineral-rich zone.
Several mindless killings followed the blast and on December 19, 2002, 20 policemen were ambushed in Seraikela and on April 7, 2004, a total of 28 policemen were killed at Baliba under Goa police station of West Singhbhum district.
With the passage of time, they effectively mapped the entire area and developed a well established network of human intelligence and gradually isolated the forest areas. "In an era of cell phones, rebels
knew from which spot of the forest and terrain they could get better connectivity," said one of the officers now engaged in Operation Monsoon.
One Sumit Mahto, a resident of Manoharpur police station area, who studied and worked in Ranchi, recalled an incident of 2008 and said, "I was sleeping on one wintry night when I was awakened by the noise of boots outside my house."
He heard people shouting, "Lal Salaam, lal salaam."
He added that the next day one of the village elders called up his father and asked him to persuade him to join the outfit. "My father refused and asked me to leave for Ranchi immediately. At Manoharpur railway station when I asked my father what was happening, he said that some senior leaders of the Red brigade were in the area and that recruitment of cadres was in progress," said Mahto.
The recruitment, training and even the justice delivery system of the Maoists went unquestioned in the area for years. Rebels set up a major training camp comprising concrete accommodations, bathrooms separate for men and women on over five acres of land in the forests near Tirilposhi village.
On August 1, 2011, the Jharkhand police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched one of the biggest anti-Naxal operations in the recent times to reclaim the 700 hills of Saranda which was code named Operation Monsoon. CRPF DG, K Vijay Kumar, flagged off the action. Over 5,000 jawans were engaged. Given the treacherous terrains, one company of force comprising 100 jawans scanned the forest in one area and later pulled out with another force replacing them to reduce the fatigue of jawans. "One fully armed jawan equipped with food and medicines on an average walked for 40 km and cleared the areas after which he rested," said CRPF spokesperson DIG (operation) Bhanu Pratap Singh.
"For the first time MI-17 aircraft was engaged in the operation along with Dhruv helicopters for ferrying jawans, food and medicines to the terrain," said Singh, adding that now it can be said that Saranda has been reclaimed from the Maoists.
This Independence Day, for the first time in the past one decade, CRPF IG (operation) D K Pandey hoisted the Tricolour at Tirilposhi village in the heart of Saranda, where black flags were hoisted by Maoists on every Independence and Republic Day
He added that if now the forests are left unattended, it will take a year for the Maoists to come back to the same position. "This was possible with the help of villagers who are now cooperating with the security forces," said Singh.
Sources said that two of the senior leaders, Prashanta Bose alias Samarji and Jharkhand Regional Committee chief Anmol Da, have sneaked into Orissa, giving a slip to security forces.
In the month-long operation, 17 Maoists have been arrested and 11 rebel camps have been busted.