DRAGNET IN THE EAST

The Odisha police and central paramilitary forces are bent on closing off a key flank that may offer tactical sanctuary to insurgents from neighbouring states

- By Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

IT'S NOT EXACTLY A WIDENING FRONTIER, more a tactical pivot to an old staging post. For, Odisha has long been an operational base of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE)-especially its poverty-stricken hinterland, which is part of eastern central India's tribal continuum. But mark the recent Maoist-related action in the state, and you can almost live-track the shifting map of the war against LWE. Take the latest one. In the early hours of June 13, the predawn gunshots that lit up the forests were in Malkangiri district-deep down south in the state and smack bang in the Eastern Ghats.