As the home ministry prepares for a counter Maoist strategy here on Friday with the police chiefs of nine rebel-affected states and central forces in the light of villagers killed in the June 28 encounter by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Chhattisgarh, it has been advised to let the IPS officers lead such operations.

The advice has come from a Brigadier from the army headquarters assigned to the home ministry for the past four years for consultations on how to tackle the Maoists’ tactic of using human shields during operations by security forces that is suspected to have led to civilian casualties.

The Brigadier noted that no IPS officer is commandant of a CRPF battalion as the officers join the force only at senior levels while the commandants are the inspector-level juniors drawn from the CRPF cadre, unlike the army where the soldiers know the commanding officer is worthy of leading by example.

The army headquarters has also advised the home ministry that the CRPF should change from the company and platoon-level deployment to battalion-level deployment.

Notes are being prepared for the Friday review meeting to be chaired by Home Secretary RK Singh also include a paper of Brigadier (retired) Rumel Dahiya of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) presented at the army-backed think-tank Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS).

He wrote: "Presently the CRPF is employed in company and platoon lots and often attached to police stations or to the district police. There is no specific area of operations assigned to CRPF battalions inder their commanding officer. Companies are often commanded by inspectors in their 50s who neither have the energy and stamina nor motivation to fight an invisible opponent with thorough knowledge of terrain and local support."