Senior officials in the ministry, however, conceded that given the situation in Lalgarh, it was difficult to imagine the Bengal police taking the lead in operations against the Maoists and tribals, and in all likelihood it would be the CRPF that would take up frontal positions.

Till Wednesday evening, the deployment of the five companies of the CRPF which had reached West Midnapore was being discussed with state police officials. These forces come from the CRPF’s group centre in Sindri in Bihar, and are learnt to be experienced in handling mob violence. Many of the men now called in for Lalgarh had been deployed in Nandigram during the violent agitation against land acquisition earlier.