India's Red Corridor has turned into a suicide zone for our security personnel fighting Maoists of central and south-central India. Death can surprise our soldiers any time as rebels in the Red zone are inducting experts to carry out explosions in the most innovative ways. The terrain of the area itself poses extreme danger as the rebels manage to operate from deep inside the jungles.
Rebels in the Red zone are killing more soldiers than are dying in all insurgency-hit areas put together. A soldier fighting Maoists deep inside the jungles of central and south-central India is far more likely to be killed than his uniformed brothers taking on militants in Jammu and Kashmir or insurgents in the North-East.
Official data from the Union home ministry shows that at least one security personnel loses his life to Maoists every three days.
Maoists are taking help of experts in planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and are always devising new strategies to ensure mass killings. And they seem to be getting better. There have been recent incidents when several security personnel have been butchered in one ambush.
According to official report, the number of security personnel killed between 2011 and 2013 was 371 in the Maoist zone.
High intensity conflict zones like Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya seem safer than the Maoist bastions Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh or Orissa where most the security personnel killings have taken place. The total death toll in all insurgency- affected areas was 239.
The main force fighting the Maoists is the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). In the last five years the force has seen more than 700 people take voluntary retirement. The CRPF also accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the suicides that take place in all paramilitary forces.
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