Naxalism will be fully eliminated from India in 3 years: Home Minister Rajnath Singh

LUCKNOW: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday assured the nation that the menace of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) will be completely wiped out from the country in next three years.

''The day is not far, maybe in a time period of 1-2 or 3 years, that the LWE will be eliminated from the country and this would happen due to your (CRPF) determination, courage and hard work and that of the state police forces,'' Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.

Singh made these remarks while addressing the 26th anniversary of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) - a specialised wing of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

Addressing the event, Singh that their (RAF, CRPF) action should be rapid and quick but never "reckless."

The Home Minister said that districts affected by the Naxal violence in the country have come down to about 10-12 as compared to 126 some time back since the Narendra Modi government has come to power at the Centre.

"I congratulate you on the kind of work you have done in the LWE theatre of the country," Singh said.

The Home Minister said the force has killed 131 Maoists and terrorists this year while it has apprehended 1,278 of them and has effected 58 surrenders during the same time.

The Home Minister also asserted that Jammu and Kashmir, where the CRPF is deployed as the lead counter-terrorism force, has been and will be an "inseparable" part of India.

"Kashmir is ours, it was ours and it will be ours. No power of the world can snatch it from us," the Home Minister said.

Some youths there (J&K) have been misled into terrorism, but our armed force (CRPF, RAF, Army, BSF and J&K Police) have ensured security commendably, he said.

Talking about the specific role of the RAF, a special unit under the CRPF, during riots and protests, the Home Minister advised them to be prompt and rapid but never "reckless."

All the police forces are like civilised units and they should never do anything that will label them as "brutal."

One should know how to behave during crowd control and similar duties and should always know how much and when to use force, he said.

Singh's comments can be seen in the context of a recent incident in Uttar Pradesh's capital where a police jawan allegedly killed an unarmed MNC executive.

An RAF battalion has a strength of just over 1,000 personnel and it is equipped with gadgets and non-lethal weapons like pump action guns, tear smoke grenade launchers and others to enforce security and law and order in case of protests or riot-like situations.

The force is part of the Central Reserve Police Force, the country's largest paramilitary force or the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) with over 3 lakh personnel. 

It was raised and made fully operational in October 1992. 

It has ten battalions (of about 10,000) based in various parts of the country in order to cut down response time to counter an incident of trouble.

The ten existing RAF battalions are based in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Aligarh, Coimbatore, Jamshedpur, Bhopal and Meerut.

Five of its new bases are in Jaipur, Varanasi, Mangalore, Hajipur(Bihar) and Nuh (Haryana).

(With Agency Inputs)