A Superintendent of Police along with his driver and three of his bodyguards were killed in a Maoist attack in Jharkhand's Pakur district on Tuesday.
The rebels ambushed Pakur SP Amarjeet Balihar's cavalcade after triggering a landmine and fired indiscriminately on it at the Kathikund jungles, some 40 km from Dumka, in perhaps the first major extremist-related attack in Santhal Pargana.
Balihar was returning to Pakur from Dumka after attending a meeting called by the Santhal Pargana DIG Priya Dubey. The meeting concluded after lunch and the officers headed to their respective places of posting. The incident happened around 2 pm.
Besides Balihar, his driver Ashok Srivastav and body guards Chandan Kumar Thapa, Manoj Kumar Hembrom and Rajeev Kumar Sharma were killed.
Three of the four personnel wounded in the attack have been identified as Santosh Mandal, N Marandi and D Maraiya, and were admitted at Sadar Hospital in Dumka.
Balihar is the second SP to fall to rebels' bullets in the region. On October 4, 2000, the ultras of the People's War, now merged with CPI (Maoist), had killed lohardaga SP Ajay Kumar Singh in undivided Bihar. lohardaga later became part of Jharkhand.
Balihar, a tribal with an impeccable service record, had joined as a DSP in 1986 and was promoted to the IPS cadre in 2003. He had joined his assignment in Pakur, first time as SP of a district, on May 17 this year.
He had earlier served as DSP in the special branch, also holding the charge of the Chief Minister's security and later as Commandant of JAP 2. He had also been posted as DSP in latehar.
Jharkhand Director General of Police Rajiv Kumar also confirmed that five, including Balihar, were killed in the ambush.
"Pakur SP Amarjeet Balihar and three of his bodyguards along with his driver have died in an attack by Maoists in the jungles of Kathikund," said the DGP, who, along with the Home Secretary, also rushed to the site.
Balihar was moving in a Scorpio while the other bodyguards were following him in a Bolero jeep. Three constables following the SP were killed in the incident.
According to police sources, a group of suspected CPI (Maoist) cadres ambushed the SP on his way back to Pakur near Kathikund forests and fired indiscriminately on the convoy. It is suspected that the convoy was also attacked by bombs.
Heavy rains coupled with damaged roads and poor telecommunication services delayed the rescue and counter-attack operations for more than an hour. By the time reinforcement teams could reach the trapped convoy, the SP and his body guards were dead.
The police, however, have started combing operations in the jungles of Belhar in Dumka, sealing the borders of Banka and Dumka.
local sources, however, claimed that the rebels were 20-25 in number.
The Kathikund area has recently witnessed a spurt in Maoist activities. In April, the rebels had torched eight vehicles of a road construction company carrying out road construction work in the area.
According to a senior IPS officer, the Maoists have apparently committed the ghastly act to ease out the pressure in latehar and Palamau where a large number of Maoists are said to be holed up inside Rajgarh forests falling under Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) since June 25.
Condemning the killing of Balihar and other policemen, Governor Syed Ahmed has termed it an act of cowardice by the rebels and their martyrdom will not go vain. "There is no place for violence in a democracy; all should join the mainstream of development inspite of indulging in such acts of violence," the Governor said in a press communiqué.
Political parties also condemned the incident, calling it a failure of the UPA Government at the Centre. Former deputy Chief Minister Hemant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, who is the forerunner in the race to become the next Chief Minister, has also condemned the incident. He said that such incidents are not good for the future of the State.