In a disturbing method of propaganda and recruitment drive, the Maoists in parts of Jharkhand have started distributing the video CDs of their bloody attacks on security forces among villagers unhappy with the government and the security forces.
The circulation of two such video CDs containing graphic footage of landmine blasts triggered by the outlawed rebel groups came to the attention of Jharkhand’s police intelligence services in the Maoist-infested Palamu district earlier this week, said sources. The footage appears to have been shot by the rebels from vantage points at the blast sites and does not show the faces of the armed, uniformed rebels shown dragging the bodies of slain security personnel.
Police officials said the two CDs possibly pertained to the December 3, 2011 IED blast and firing on the convoy of Jharkhand MP and former Assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari in Latehar, in which eight people including six policemen, were killed; and the January 21, 2012 landmine blast in the jungles in Garhwa district in which 13 policemen were killed. One CD, said an official, shows armed Maoists scornfully dragging the bodies of policemen killed in the blast.
Jharkhand police officials refrained from commenting officially on these CDs, saying they were currently engaged in investigations to trace their sources. But the CDs caused serious concerns among top police officials about the damaging imp-act villagers watching the videos could have. “The circulation of these CDs points at the desperation among the leftwing rebels for their inability to rec-ruit enough new people.”