NAXAL/ MAOISTS- 2010 - Indian Social Institute

Ministers of other States confronted with Red terror, conveying the impression that Bihar has nothing to
worry about. But as the latest Maoist outrage, which comes in the wake of a similar attack on security
forces in Chhattisgarh, demonstrates, Bihar is as vulnerable as West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand; that
it needs to tone up its security forces; and, that there has to be better coordination between the State
police and the Central paramilitary forces. While Mr Nitish Kumar is entitled to believe that Maoists can be
talked out of their violent campaign against the state through dialogue, the harsh reality is that only a
bullet-for-bullet policy can help deal with what the Prime Minister has repeatedly described, and rightly so,
as the greatest threat to India’s internal security. The Bihar Government’s soft line has clearly not worked
in taming the Red menace: Schools and healthcare centres are being blown up; tribals are being
subjected to Maoist brutality; trains are being attacked; and, elected representatives are being told to stay
away from their constituencies. State Assembly Speaker Udai Narain Choudhary has been threatened
with dire consequences if he persists with development work in his Imamganj constituency. In this
situation, it would not be in Bihar’s interest if the State Government were to stick to its flawed policy.
There’s no percentage in delaying the joint counter-insurgency operations that have fetched results
elsewhere. Not to do so would be tantamount to signalling to the Maoists that the State Government is
too feeble to take on the marauders. Surely Mr Nitish Kumar doesn’t want that. (dailypioneer, 1/9/2010,
editorial)
Bihar hostage crisis over; abducted policemen released
Maoists today released the three abducted Bihar policemen in Lakhisarai district, bringing an end to the
nine-day-old hostage crisis. The three policemen -- Abhay Prasad Yadav, Rupesh Kumar Sinha and
Ehshan Khan, who were taken hostage on August 29, were freed by the ultras this morning on the border
of Kajra-Chanan forests and hills, about 165 kms from the state capital. The Maoists had earlier killed one
of the captive policemen, Lucas Tete. His body was found on Friday. “All the three kidnapped policemen
have been released by the Maoists from the Kajra-Chanan forest in Lakhisarai district after the police
sealed the escape routes of the ultras in the forests and hills,” Director General of Police Neelmani told
PTI. Sub-Inspector of Police and Station House Officer of Manikpur police station Yadav, SI Sinha and
BMP Havildar Khan were with the Superintendent of Police (Lakhisarai), Ranjit Kumar Mishra, he said.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had offered talks with the ultras on the hostage crisis and even
expressed the state government’s readiness to provide them safe passage for talks, heaved a sigh of
relief after Neelmani informed him about the development. Seven Maoists, including a self-styled area
commander and mastermind of the Lakhisarai incident Pintu Das, have been arrested in the last few days
during the intense search operations that were launched by the security forces in the hills and forests of
Munger, Lakhisarai, Jamui, Banka and Kaimur districts. Families of the three policemen had an agonising
wait on Sunday when the Maoists had claimed to have released them but the state government said it
had no information about them. The Maoists had last night again stated that the hostages would be freed
today. Seven policemen were killed and ten others injured during a fierce encounter with Maoists in
Sitlakodasi forest under Kajra police station in Lakhisarai district on August 29. The ultras had also
kidnapped the four policemen. The Maoists had on Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the state government
that they would kill hostages if it failed to release their eight jailed colleagues -- Jai Paswan, Vijay
Chourasia, Prem Bhuiyan, Pramod Barnawal, Ramvilas Tanti, Ramesh Tirkie, Arjun Koda, and Rattu
Koda. Avinash, a self-proclaimed spokesman for the Maoists, had then informed media offices that the
ultras had killed SI Abhay Yadav following expiry of the deadline, but the police had recovered the bulletridden
body of BMP ASI Tete from Singrishi dam’s Smra Tari forest in Lakhisarai district. It had forced the
Chief Minister to offer safe passage to the representatives of the Maoists coming for talks on the crisis.
Mr. Kumar convened an all-party meeting on Saturday that had evolved a consensus asking the Maoists
to release the three hostages unconditionally. Avinash had soon after the appeal from the all party
meeting, told local media offices in Jamui that the central committee of the ultra-left wing had rejected the
offers for talks and decided to release the hostages unconditionally on “humanitarian considerations”.
(The Hindu, 6/9/2010)
Centre not sincere about talks with Maoists: Agnivesh
Social activist Swami Agnivesh today accused the Centre of not being sincere about its proposed peace
negotiations as it had not ordered a judicial probe into the death of CPI(ML) spokesperson Azad. Azad
was gunned down by Andhra Pradesh police on July 2 in Vankhidi forest area at Jogapur in Adilabad.
“The government is using me as a pawn to deal with Maoists”, Agnivesh, who is a mediator in brokering
talks between Maoists and the government, told reporters on the sidelines of the World Religious
Congress in Kochi. He said he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 20 seeking a judicial
probe into the killing of Azad, but nothing had happened so far. Agnivesh said he had also met BJP
leaders L K Advani, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh and CPI leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja asking