CPI (Maoist) insurgents torched 11 vehicles, including nine excavators, under Kisko Police Station in Lohardaga district on Tuesday night, police said on Wednesday. The vehicles belonged to two private companies involved in bauxite mining in the area, they added.
Lohardaga's Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Jitendra Singh said that the incident occured at Pakhar bauxite mines. He suspected that Maoist leader Ravindra Ganjhu, who has a bounty of Rs.2 lakh on his head, could be behind the attack. “We are interrogating locals to establish more links. The investigation is in process," said Singh.
As many as nine excavators, a compressor machine and a JCB were set ablaze in the incident, police said. This is the second incident of Maoist violence reported in less than a week. Earlier, on Sunday, a chowkidar and a policeman were killed by members the banned outfit in a ambush on a joint patrolling team of police and Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) in West Singhbhum district.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), at least 19 of 24 districts in the State are Left Wing Extremism-affected. Apart from the main CPI (Maoist), there are as many as 17 splinter outfits here, police say.
The outlawed CPI (Maoist) – the oldest and the most dreaded Left Wing Extremist group in Jharkhand – has also been planting pressure IEDs to target security forces in rural areas, police said. Their move, however, is causing civilian casualties as the IEDs are easily triggered by the body weight of villagers who go to forests to gather wood, they
added.
Last year, police arrested spouse of Ravindra Ganjhu, the Maoist leader suspected to be behind Tuesday's attack. While the Government claims that Maoists are fast losing ground to the security forces in Jharkhand, such incidents causing human casualties and loss of property continue to surface in Jharkhand hinterland.