The Maoists killed a superintendent of police and four police constables in Jharkhand’s Pakur district in a landmine blast followed by indiscriminate firing on Tuesday afternoon. The attack, which also left three constables injured, marked the biggest-ever strike in Maoist-affected Jharkhand’s tribal-majority Santhal Pargana region.
Pakur SP Amarjit Balihar and four constables who were accompanying him bled to death on the spot, close to Amaltala village in the forested Kathikund block, 450 km northeast from Ranchi, Jharkhand’s capital, as arrival of reinforcements was delayed due to torrential rains, damaged roads and poor communication lines. Jharkhand DGP Rajiv Kumar, who rushed to the spot along with state home secretary N.N. Pandey, confirmed the deaths.
The administration in Jharkhand, now under President’s Rule, was caught off-guard by the daring attack and the casualties. The entire attention of the state’s politicians and higher bureaucracy was focused on the day’s political developments, with fresh efforts being made by the Congress and the JMM to form a government in the state. The state governor, Mr Syed Ahmad, convened an emergency meeting of top officials soon after learning of the attack and directed an immediate launch of necessary security and medical operations.
Balihar, a tribal police official who was promoted to the IPS in 2003 and had joined as SP of Pakur in May, was returning from Dumka after a regional security meeting when nearly 60 armed Maoists ambushed his cavalcade, officials said. The Scorpio car in which the SP was travelling along with two bodyguards and two other vehicles, which together carried 20 armed policemen, were caught in the landmine blast and indiscriminate firing from both sides of the unpaved road, they said.
While police officials claimed at least three Maoists were gunned down by the police in an exchange of fire after the blast, no bodies except those of the slain policemen have been retrieved so far. Kathikund, in underdeveloped Pakur district, had jumped into Jharkhand’s map of Maoist-dominated pockets in April when the left-wing rebels had set fire to eight vehicles of a company that is building roads in the area.
“We have launched an intensive combing operation jointly by CRPF personnel and district police teams in and around the attack site immediately after this incident,” said Jharkhand police spokesman Shambhu Thakur.
Balihar is the second SP to fall to the Maoists’ bullets in the region. On October 4, 2000, the ultras of the People’s War, now merged with the CPI (Maoist), had butchered Lohardaga SP Ajay Kumar Singh in undivided Bihar. Lohardaga later became a part of Jharkhand.