Black Cat commandos may fight Naxals

The Centre is considering larger involvement of the elite National Security Guards (NSG) in fighting the Left-wing terrorism (commonly called Naxalism) across 12 states in the country, in view of the increased striking capabilities of these groups.

Sources said that at a recent meeting, a case for involving the NSG in a major way was made before Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

The NSG, which has a greater expertise in bomb detection and disposal, would be used to check the increasing use of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) by the Naxal groups against security forces.

Another proposal to set up a National Bomb Data Centre, which will keep the security forces updated on latest technologies being used by the terrorist, is also under consideration of the Home ministry, sources said.

At present, nearly 30 battalions of Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) are battling it out in difficult Naxal infested terrains, with an occasional help from the NSG.

Security forces are worried about increasing frequency, potency and lethality of IED attacks by the Naxal groups in Chattisgarh, Jharkahnd, UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

Interestingly, during the last one year, security forces have clubbed traditional terror hotspots like Jammu and Kashmir and Assam along with Jharkhand and Chattisgarh as India's most IED prone conflict regions.

Security agencies have already warned the Centre of the shifting focus of Naxal groups from the rural to urban areas. "Slowly, these groups are setting up their networks in small towns, where law and order is lax and a huge population of working class lives," a senior security officer said.

The expertise in IEDs is being linked to the ever-increasing linkages of the one-time localised Naxal groups with the home-grown outfits of Kashmiris and ULFA. Besides, the Naxals are also linked to international resistance conglomerates like the Laos-based Co-ordination Committee of Maoists and Organ of South Asia and the Left parties of Turkey and the Philippines and the LTTE.