Alert was sounded across Chhattisgarh Wednesday and extra para-military troopers deployed in jungle areas as the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) began its weeklong foundation anniversary celebrations, police said.
"Attacks are feared in state's jungle areas during the weeklong celebrations," a top police official told IANS.
"Forces have been relocated in areas vulnerable to attacks and civilians are cautioned while travelling on roads filled with landmines in the interiors of Bastar, Raipur and Rajnandgaon districts," he said. In Dantewada, considered one of India's worst Left insurgency-hit districts, patrolling has been intensified.
East Coast Railway has cancelled night train movement of goods trains in Waltair division till Sep 27 between Dantewada's Kirandul to Bastar district headquarters Jagdalpur after intelligence reports warned of possible attacks on rakes loaded with iron ore.
"Security has been put in top gear, policemen have been placed in almost all sensitive areas and patrolling has been intensified on key roads," Dantewada Superintendent of Police Ankit Garg said.
Maoist banners and posters recovered by police from forested areas of Dantewada read that the outfit -- founded Sep 21, 2004, with merger of the Peoples' War Group (PWG) and Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) -- will host a series of cultural programmes at its hideouts in the jungles of Bastar over the next seven days.
Meanwhile, the Maoists opened fire and injured two troopers of the Special Task Force in an area of the Raipur district, some 150 km from here.
They were rushed to a private hospital and doctors attending on them termed the condition of one of the troopers "extremely serious".
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh presided over a meeting of police and home department officials at state secretariat building on strategies to tackle the Maoists.
Official sources said that the chief minister advised officials posted at the police headquarters here to spend a few days in a month in the Maoist-hit areas to experience the difficulties being faced by policemen deployed there.