The Maoist attack on Friday that killed five policemen in Saraikela Kharsawan has left the police pondering over the new ways adopted by insurgents to make their presence felt. While three encounters between the security forces and rebels have occurred in the state in less than a month, Friday’s incident was the first coldblooded attack by the rebels on police personnel while they were not on a combing operation, police said on Saturday.
“This is the first attack on policemen this month. The other incidents were all encounters between rebels and central forces during combing operations,” said Additional Director General of Police, ML Meena.
The incidents of encounter between security forces and the CPI (Maoist) witnessed a rise since the completion of the 17th Lok Sabha elections in Jharkhand. Police have attributed this rise in the number of encounters to the intensification of anti-insurgency operations in different parts of the state.
Saraikela Kharsawan, however, has witnessed the maximum number of such encounters recently. On May 28, at least 11 security personnel sustained injuries during an encounter with the rebels in the district. A day after the election results were declared, an encounter between the rebels and security forces in Saraikela Kharsawan caused injuries to at least five jawans of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
“We cannot deny that there is a strong presence of CPI (Maoist) in the district. These incidents have occurred despite intense combing operations conducted in the Maoist pockets of the district,” Meena said.
Saraikela Kharsawan is one of the 18 Left Wing Extremism –hit districts in Jharkhand and is prone to attacks by the rebels. However, Friday’s incident appeared to be a retaliatory move by the rebels against the combing operations conducted in the area, police sources said. The objective, they added, was not only to snatch arms and ammunitions from the policemen but also to send a message to the Government and the local people.
“Anti-insurgency operations will be intensified in the area. We cannot disclose details of the operations to the media at this stage,” said an Inspector General rank official requesting anonymity.
Eyewitnesses said that around 15 rebels on Friday overpowered the five policemen, stabbed them with knives and used the cops’ guns to eventually kill them. The attack was executed in a crowded market and the policemen were killed in presence of commoners. The motive could only be looting the guns, but the way the attack was executed indicates that the rebels wanted to instill fear among the commoners, police sources said. Senior police officials of state paid homage to the martyrs in Saraikela Kharsawan on Saturday.
During the election campaigning in Jharkhand, then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that left wing extremism will be wiped out of Jharkhand by 2023. On the other hand, the Jharkhand Government has claimed on a number of occasions that the CPI (Maoist) was on the back foot in the state.