"We have told our people, number one try to get surrender, number two, try to get arrest. Only when you are about to be shot, then you resort to firearms," Kumar told reporters here on the sideline of a function here.
"If somebody is firing at you, it's a question of kill or get killed. If you don't want to get killed, if there's a situation where our boys will be killed we resort to it. We don't resort to extreme measures unless it is unavoidable," Kumar, who held discussion with Odisha's new Director General of Police Prakash Mishra on anti-Maoist operations in the state, said.
Asked whether he foresaw a situation where personnel would be forced to go for physical elimination, Kumar said "No question of physical elimination. We are only talking of the right of self defence."
He refused to comment on lack of a uniform surrender policy.
"I won't be commenting on surrender policy because it is something .. That the government is involved," Kumar said.