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Rains obstruct anti-Naxal ops in Bihar

Tara Shankar Sahay in Palamau

Incessant rains have obstructed flushing-out operations in the Palamau district of south Bihar where extremists belonging to the Maoist Coordination Centre and People's War Group killed 26 policemen and government officials on Saturday, polling day.

South Bihar zonal Inspector General of Police Rameshwar Oraon, who is camping in Palamau to oversee the operations, told rediff.com that the rains have given an undue advantage to the extremists who have slipped deep into the jungles. ''Nothing is visible beyond 100 yards in the jungles of Palamau and Hazaribagh,'' he added.

Oraon said though his men know about the extremists's hideouts, the flushing out operations would be resumed only after the last phase of polling was over in Bihar. ''Hopefully, by then the rains too would subside.''

The IGP said rains had obliterated all signs of digging that usually indicate the position of a landmine and that was the reason why such a large number of policemen, who are trained to read such signs, died the same day.

He confirmed that all 26 deaths in Palamau were caused by landmine blasts and said this indicated that the PWG had trained the MCC ultras in handling ''improvised explosives.'' He said militants engineered a series of blasts at close intervals taking the security set up in the area by surprise.

Oraon regretted that nothing much had been ''done to check the extremists' growth in south Bihar" and indicated it could be the result of differences in the political leadership.

He named Chatra, Garwa, Giridih, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Lohardagga and Palamau as the most sensitive districts.

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