Tamil Nadu cop to head national anti-Naxal force

CHENNAI: A special national task force to tackle the Naxalite problem across India is likely to be headed by Tamil Nadu's additional director general of police (law and order) K Vijayakumar - also the man instrumental in the shooting of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, sources here said.

The aim of the task force is to streamline and synergise anti-Naxal operations across India and also coordinate between authorities of different states. The force, according to home ministry sources, will have senior officers from intelligence agencies, central paramilitary forces and state police forces.

The ministry has appointed Durgaprasad, a retired police official and an expert on Naxal issues from Andhra Pradesh, to train the task force personnel.

"The details are expected by June," Vijayakumar told TOI. Vijayakumar, who currently holds additional charge of heading the special task force in Tamil Nadu, has varied experience in jungle warfare and is a former Indian Army officer.




 

The special task force, originally formed to nab Veerappan, was later employed to fight Naxals in the state.

The idea of forming a central anti-Naxal task force took shape in December last year, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a meeting with the chief ministers of various states.

The meeting found it necessary to have a central unit to deal with the menace, spread across many states. The formation of the anti-Naxal task force is the first consolidated attempt to be followed by several other measures, sources said.

While Naxalite presence has been recorded for several years in the jungles of Tamil Nadu's border district of Dharmapuri, such activities are now being reported from districts such as Theni, Madurai and Dindigul as well.

State police arrested three new Naxal recruits from Theni in June, 2007. In April 2008, police shot down Naveen alias Prashanth, a Naxalite in Kodaikanal.