The East Singhbhum district police have set up a camp of Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) at Jhunjka village in Patamda, near the Bengal border to keep vigil on the Maoists activities.
Though naxal activity has considerably been under control but following intelligence reports the police took initiative to set up camp.
Deputy Superintendent of police (Patamda), Amit Kumar Singh said that they zeroed on Jhunja as an appropriate place for setting up the camp because Ram Prasad Mardi alias Sachin, the area commander of banned outfit CPI-Maoist and his squad are regular at the village.
The DSP said that that by setting up the camp close to the Bengal border, they will maintain a strict vigil on dreaded naxal leader Sachin. Intelligence sources said that Sachin would visit to the Patamda from across Bengal for collecting levy from the contractors
Meanwhile sources informed that ultras may planned their activities in Patamda and fringe area of Bodam block.
The activists of banned outfit of CPI (Maoist) are also trying to set their foot in the hilly Patamda area, forcing the villagers to help them like they used to do by providing food and shelter in the area in the past.
A police official said as there are a large number of villagers, who have shifted their base from the naxals to the police, it is the duty of the police administration to instill a sense of confidence among such villagers. “We have alerted security forces in vulnerable areas of Patamda, Ghatshila and Potka in view of the elections,” he noted.
Sources informed that apart from ensuring deployment of addition police and paramilitary forces, the operations and patrolling had been intensified to check the possibility of entry of Maoists from neighbouring States. Strict vigil is being kept in Maoist-affected pockets of the district including Dumaria, Bodam and Potka.
At the Jhunjka camp, about 100 jawans of JAP posted for keeping a close vigil on the movement of ultras. Beside, carrying out their regular bit of exercise like long range patrolling across the Bengal border, the JAP jawans connect to locals to instill confidence of the local villagers who were in the past played important role in flourishing naxalism in the turn of the century and beyond. The JAP jawans will soon be replaced with the paramilitary CRPF.