Launching their final offensive to reclaim areas held by the Maoists in West Midnapore district, security forces started marching towards Kantapahari from both Lalgarh and Ramgarh ends today.
The forces, comprising 1600 men of the CRPF, BSF, State Armed Police and India Reserve Battalion set out at around 700 hrs from Lalgarh and Ramgarh in a pincer movement, a senior CRPF officer told a PTI correspondent accompanying the forces.
Around 180 men of the CoBRA forces were accompanying the central forces and state police to sanitise areas, especially jungles. A helicopter was in the air to spot the Maoists from above.
"Taking Kantapahari is important for us, as it holds the key to the Maoist resistance in West Midnapore district," intelligence sources said.
Intelligence sources said that Kantapahari, besides the surrounding villages of Boropelia, Chottopelia and Dalilpur Chowk, from which the tribal unrest began last November against police atrocities, had a large concentration of Maoists, who were backing the tribals.
Boropelia is the home village of Convenor of the Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA), Chhatradhar Mahato, whom the security forces were looking for.
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The PCPA had started the agitation to protest police raids on their homes after Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the then union ministers, Ramvilas Paswan and Jitindra Prasad narrowly escaped a landmine blast at Salboni in the district on November two last year by Maoists.
The forces had secured Ramgarh, a village which held a large concentration of Maoists, in the second phase of the operations on Saturday. The operations by the security forces was launched first on June 19, when a human shield of tribals was demolished swiftly at Pirakata.
A day later, the security forces marched into Lalgarh police station, which had been under siege since November last year.