The Maoists blew up a water tank close to a hill-top CRPF camp and set afire a bus and two private vehicles in Jharkhand in a series of attacks beginning on Sunday midnight as they set off their two-day state-wide strike in protest against the alleged undisclosed arrest of two of their commanders by the police.
The attack on the water tank at Jhumra Pahari in Bokaro district was a wake-up call for both the CRPF and the state police as it took place just 800 metres off the camp. The police sources said the camping CRPF jawans were clearly caught off guard and that it could have been the camp itself that was being targeted by the rebels. Water supply to the camp, under Mahuatand police station, got seriously threatened though Bokaro SP Saket Kumar Singh claimed there was an alternative source of water.
A bus coming from Ambikapur in bordering Chhattisgarh to Jharkhand capital Ranchi was set afire by Maoists belonging to the People Liberation Front of India (PLFI) early on Monday morning on NH 78 at Raidih in the western Gumla district. Taslim Khan, driver of the bus from Jaymala Transport, said: “About 20 armed rebels fired on our bus to force it to stop and then evacuated all the passengers and staff before torching it”.
A JCB machine and a Gypsy vehicle were also set afire by the Maoists in Shikaripara area while an Innova vehicle was torched in another incident on the Khunti-Murhu road by the PLFI rebels.
Three bodies of villagers abducted last week were on Monday found at Lapung near Ranchi in badly mutilated condition. PLFI commander Karma Oraon’s involvement was suspected in this case and the police said it could have resulted from the feud between the PLFI and the rival Maoist outfit Jharkhand Liberation Tiger (JLT).
The PLFI claims two of its cadres including one commander, Binu Yadav, were picked up by the Jharkhand police last week. The outlawed organisation said the two were being detained in an undisclosed site and not being produced in court, but the police denied the charges.