Sunday, March 5 2006 11:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With naxalites stepping up their activities across the eastern corridor, the CRPF has demanded setting up of an "information cell" for bettering information sharing with insurgency-hit states to pre-empt attacks.

The counter-insurgency operations of CRPF were at times affected because of "haphazard" communication and intelligence sharing between the force and various affected states, CRPF Director General J K Sinha said.

"There is a need for setting up an intelligence cell to institutionalise information gathering. Now the whole process in being done in a haphazard manner," he told sources.

"We need to have a pro-active offensive approach in collaboration with the state intelligence agencies as several attacks on our personnel have shown that we are operating without planning or thinking," he said.

With the expansion of its role in counter-insurgency opertions, the central paramilitary force has already decided to set up a dedicated intelligence apparatus to give more teeth to its operations.

CRPF, which has been given the charge of internal security in 2001, decided to form its own intelligence wing as part of a "pro-active strategy" after it faced difficulties in getting intelligence inputs from insurgency-hit states.

"We have already withdrawn around 1450 officers and men from our over 200 battalions and many of them are already being trained by the Intelligence Bureau (IB)," he said.

"We have formulated the structure and the intelligence wing will be in place by the end of March," Sinha said.

The officers will be given training in all aspects of intelligence gathering, including the Technical Intelligence (TECHINT) of the specialised field, he said.