Maoists run amok at two places but feel heat in Ranchi, H'bagh
With parliamentary elections round the corner, the Red terror has slowly begun surfacing with its ugly face openly throwing a challenge to the police in the State.In last 24 hours, the CPI Maoists have been directly involved in four separate incidents, including one skirmish with a police team at Bundu.
Suspected CPI Maoists shot at two persons in Marangdih in Khunti district. The incident reportedly took place in the wee hours of Saturday. However, no arrest has been made in connection with the incident. The injured are said to be undergoing treatment at RIMS, Ranchi. "Prima facie, it appears that CPI Maoists are behind this incident," said Khunti SP.
In another incident, the Maoists blew up two school buildings at Nokania under Khukhra in Giridih district. However, police officials have not confirmed the incident. According to sources, the incident happened around 1.30 am on Saturday in which the extremists blew up two upgraded middle school buildings of two rooms each. About 40 members of the banned outfit blasted the school building by dynamite, said source. The Red cadres had set on fire one JCB machine in the same area around two days back.
Police face Red challenge ahead of lS polls
Nonetheless, the State police believe that the pent up activity of ultras doesn't signify loopholes in police's preparedness for conducting peaceful election."They have been caught at other places also. The incidents are not grave and it does not mean that we are not prepared," maintained IG and Jharkhand Police's spokesperson Anurag Gupta.
Significantly, dealing a blow to Naxals ahead of the parliamentary elections the Ranchi police arrested three Maoists from Kurmadih forest in Bundu. The members of the leftwing extremist group were arrested in a raid conducted after the police received specific inputs about few extremists assembling to devise strategies to disrupt polls.
On March 20, Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Prabhat Kumar received information that a few members of the banned outfit and their plans to conduct meeting in the forest of Kurmadih to strengthen the outfit besides planning their strategy for the upcoming elections.
The SSP constituted a team after consultation with the officials of 133 battalion of Central Reserve Police Force and cornered a group of Naxals from two directions and challenged them. The gun battle that ensued made the extremists retreat in the dense forest, however, the police managed to arrest three -- Jeevardhan Munda, Meher Munda and Sanika Munda.
"The ammunitions that were recovered from them suggested that they were planning to attack a police party during elections," said the SSP.
Significantly, the police recovered one .303 police rifle and 31 live cartridges of the rifle, explosives, detonators, pressure cooker bomb, one 7.62 mm pistol, operation thread, Naxal literature, clothes and other things needed to carry on with their anti-establishment activities. The police suspect that the group that they encountered in the forest probably fled the areas which will go to polls in third phase.
"Police forces are being sent to places which will go to elections in third phase since Ranchi will go to polls in the next phase they must have fled those places and came to the area," continued Kumar.
Interestingly, Naxals also faced police's heat in Hazaribagh where the police seized huge cache of ammunitions that included three cylinder bombs, five can bombs, five pressure cooker bombs, five gelatins, five detonators and wires from the Durgadha forest of Chauparan. The bombs have been diffused by the bomb disposal squad.