Eight persons, including six Police personnel and one Special Police Officer (SPO), were killed when Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres blew up a Police vehicle between Uchla and Dhamania villages under the Roshanganj Police Station in Gaya District, on February 22, 2013. The eighth person was a civilian travelling with the Police. The Police party had gone to Balasot village on the request of the local Child Development Project Officer (CDPO), to provide security cover to a programme organized there for recruitment of village level workers.
Just a month earlier, on January 21, about 50 Security Force (SF) personnel had escaped narrowly when Maoists triggered a landmine blast on the road at Salaiya More in Dumuria Block in the same District, moments after troopers had walked away from the blast location.
Again, on October 18, 2012, six Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed and another eight CRPF troopers, including a Deputy Commandant, were injured, when CPI-Maoist cadres triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) blast, blowing up a Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV) near the Chakarbandha Forest, in Barha village under the Dumaria Police Station in Gaya District. The CRPF troopers were returning after conducting a raid on a Maoist hideout.
These incidents reaffirm the enduring capacities of the Maoists, despite significant losses of leaders and cadres, and in spite of declining levels of violence.
According to partial data compiled by South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Bihar recorded 41 fatalities in 2012, in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-related violence, including 16 civilians, 10 SF personnel, and 15 Maoists. In 2011, 61 fatalities had been recorded, including 39 civilians, three SF personnel and 19 Maoists. Though a sharp decline has been registered in civilian fatalities, SF fatalities increased from three to 10, while Maoist fatalities declined marginally.
Source: SATP, * Data till February 24, 2013
Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) data also confirmed these trends, recording 49 total fatalities in 2012, including 34 civilians, 10 SF personnel and five Maoists; as against 77 fatalities in 2011, including 60 civilians, three SF personnel and 14 Maoists.
Five major incidents (involving three or more fatalities) were recorded in 2012, as against six such incidents in 2011. In one such incident, on June 10, 2012, SFs comprising Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), Special Task Force (STF) and Bihar Military Police (BMP) troopers, entered into a familiar Maoist trap – after receiving purported information of Maoist presence – in the Chakarbandha Forest under the Dumaria Police Station in Gaya District. One MPV was damaged and one trooper died in a landmine blast, while another succumbed to a heart attack. SFs shot dead two Maoists. It was subsequently discovered that the Maoists had planted nearly 85 landmines in the area.
The Maoists were also involved in seven cases of recorded abductions. Among these, they killed a total of six people in two incidents. Further, in an audacious attempt in broad daylight, on June 20, 2012, the Maoists abducted 19 Railway employees, including a Station Master, in Jamui District. However, they released the hostages later the same evening.
The Maoists were also involved in 18 recorded incidents of arson, and particularly targeted road construction works, setting ablaze equipment and vehicles. 12 sand-laden trucks were set ablaze at Gidheshwar Ghat under the Khaira Police Station area in Jamui District, for defying the two-day East Bihar and Jharkhand bandh (general shot down) called by the Maoists on March 22, 2012, to protest the arrest of five of their leaders from various places in Bihar and Jharkhand.
Most of the parameters remain comparable in both years, and the high number of arrests stands out. In fact, the number of Maoists arrested in 2012 in Bihar was the highest (422) among the Maoist-affected states, followed by Chhattisgarh (397), Jharkhand (377), Andhra Pradesh (312), Odisha (186), Maharashtra (78), West Bengal (76), and others (34). Two significant indicators – the number of arms training camps held and the number of Jan Adalats (‘People’s Courts’, kangaroo courts organized by the Maoists) showed significant decline, from 12 to five and 17 to 10, respectively.
In 2011, State police had made several significant arrests, a performance they could not repeat in 2012. Nevertheless, at least one ‘commandeer’, two ‘zonal commanders’, nine ‘sub-zonal commanders’, and 13 ‘area commanders’, were arrested in 2012, while one ‘area commander’ and one ‘sub-zonal commander’ surrendered.
The SFs recovered large quantities of explosives in combing operations through the year. Among the major seizures were the January 6, 2012, incident, when Bihar Police recovered 500 quintals of explosives in Gaya District. On February 7, in Jamui District, SFs seized nearly two tonnes of explosives and a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, including 13 rifles, 500 detonators, and hundreds of IEDs. Police also seized around 90 quintals of ammonium nitrate and 3,000 detonators which were to be delivered to the mining mafia and the Maoists in Rohtas District, on September 19.
An analysis of underground and overground activities of the Maoists in Bihar indicates that 19 of a total of 38 Districts recorded Maoist-related incidents of some form or other. These were: Aurangabad, Banka, Begusarai, East Champaran, Gaya, Jamui, Jehanabad, Kaimur, Katihar, Munger, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Purnia, Samastipur, Sheohor, Vaishali, Sitamarhi, Saran and Rohtas. In 2011, the number of Districts where Maoist-related incidents occurred numbered 24. Most of the violence in 2012 was, however, concentrated in Gaya, Rohtas, Aurangabad, Munger, Jamui, Sitamarhi and Vaishali Districts.
Suresh Yadav aka Nagendra, an ‘area commander’ of a Maoist group, who was arrested on December 31, 2011, had disclosed that the Maoists operating in eastern Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand Districts had regrouped under a new structure, having dissolved their old Jamui-Bhagalpur Committee, and formed a new zonal group — the Eastern Bihar-North Jharkhand Zonal Committee. The new Committee would operate in more than a dozen Districts in eastern Bihar and in some parts of north Jharkhand. Yadav revealed, further, that some members of the Committee had been sent to Nepal for training.
Earlier, speaking at the Chief Ministers’ (CM) Conference on Internal Security in New Delhi, on April 16, 2012, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reiterated his demand for increasing the strength of Central Armed Forces in Bihar. He also sought more financial assistance to implement the 'Aapki Sarkar Aapke Dwar' (Your Government at Your Doorstep) scheme. He claimed, “Our approach, along with the strategy of area domination, intelligence-based operations, providing security to ongoing development works and capacity building of the Police force, is reaping good results."
Chief Minister Kumar, however, expressed dissatisfaction on the slow implementation of the Central Government’s flagship schemes, such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY, a housing scheme). Interestingly, Union Rural Development (URD) Minister, Jairam Ramesh, on August 25, 2012, warned that the Maoist movement could intensify if adequate steps were not taken to provide basic infrastructure to the rural population.
Despite claims of success and a ‘strong’ state response, it remains the case that the Police-population ratio (number of Policemen per 100,000 population) in Bihar, at 65, as on December 31, 2011, remained the lowest among Indian States, and indeed, is less than half the national average of 137, according to National Crimes Record Bureau data. The Bihar Police-population ratio rose by just a single digit in a year, from 64 in 2010.
When URD Minister Ramesh visited Sitamarhi District on June 17, 2012, the District administration prevailed upon him not to venture into the Maoist-affected Giddha gram panchayat (village level locals self Government institution) under the Runnisaidpur Block, 35 kilometres from the District headquarters, fearing landmine attack. Ramesh expressed concern over the shortage of Police Force and the low number of Police Stations in Bihar. In Sitamarhi, he observed, for 3.5 million people across 17 blocks, there were only 18 Police Stations, which are also ill-equipped. “This number should be doubled,” he noted, adding that “whether it is terrorism or Naxalism, the Police have to fight the menace just as it was achieved by Punjab Police.”
Meanwhile, the MHA approved construction of 85 ‘fortified’ Police Stations in Bihar. Further, as part of the exercise to intensify area domination in Maoist-hit Districts of the State, the CRPF has decided to set up a Group Centre in Patna, which will comprise of five battalions, spread over different Districts. The five battalions would be strategically located at Gaya, Jamui, Rohtas, East Champaran and Patna.
The Union Government has also provided Netra, a small toy-like surveillance aircraft, to the CRPF’s 159th battalion in Gaya, to keep a close watch on Maoists hiding in dense forests and hills in Gaya.
The decline in violence notwithstanding, the CPI-Maoist retains sufficient capacities for disruptive dominance in large parts of the State. Bihar’s persistent and excessive dependence on Central Forces, without any urgent effort to expand and improve the capacities of the State Police, can only leave the State and its people vulnerable to Maoist violence, whenever the rebels decide that an escalation could be strategically advantageous.
Related Links
Bihar: Persistent Vulnerabilities - - Mrinal Kanta Das, SAIR
Odisha: Half Empty - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan, SAIR
Jharkhand: Little Respite - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan, SAIR
Maharashtra: Uncertain Gains - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan, SAIR
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Maharashtra: Red Subversion in Gadchiroli - - Ajit Kumar Singh & Deepak Kumar Nayak, SAIR
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Andhra Pradesh: A Deepening Calm - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
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West Bengal: Body Blow - - Ajai Sahni & Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Maoists: Filling the Void - - Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
Odisha: Expanding Maoist Front - - Deepak Kumar Nayak , SAIR
West Bengal: Does Fire Burn? - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Jharkhand: Barren Monsoon - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Chhattisgarh: Blundering On - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Andhra Pradesh: Wilful Blindness - - Ajai Sahni , SAIR
West Bengal: Re-inventing Folly - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Jharkhand: War without Plan - - Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
Latehar: The Colour of Fratricide - - Deepak Kumar Nayak, SAIR
West Bengal: Elections and the Maoists - - Guest Writer: Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Odisha: Red Bastion in Koraput - - Deepak Kumar Nayak , SAIR
The Maoists: Winning Formula - - Deepak Kumar Nayak , SAIR
Odisha: Tentative Gains- - Deepak Kumar Nayak , SAIR
Jharkhand: Failed Strategy - - Ajit Kumar Singh, SAIR
Maharashtra: Secure in Denial - - Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
West Bengal: The Colour of Blood - - Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Bihar: Maoist Surge- - Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
AP: Red Flags - - Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
A Withering Green- - Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Maoists: Sabotaging the Future- - Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
Maoists: Women in the Camp- - Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
The Maoists and their Mines- - Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
Orissa: Troubled Fronts - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Bihar: Falsehood, Infirmity & Death - -Ajai Sahni , SAIR
West Bengal: The PCPA and its ‘Useful Idiots’ - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Red Rot - -Sandipani Dash , SAIR
Anti-Maoist Strategy: Utter Disarray - -Ajai Sahni , SAIR
Targeting the Economy - -Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
West Bengal: A Year of Failure - -Ajai Sahni & Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
Journey Interrupted - -Ajit Kumar Singh, SAIR
CI Strategies: Garbage In, Garbage Out - -Ajai Sahni , SAIR
Death by Delusion - -Ajai Sahni , SAIR
Red Money - -Ajit Kumar Singh & Sachin Bansidhar Diwan , SAIR
Bihar: The Expediency of Failure - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
West Bengal: Sitting Ducks - -Ajit Kumar Singh, SAIR
Chhattisgarh: Strategies of Failure - -Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
Maharashtra: Maoist Mayhem - -Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
Jharkhand: A Deepening Dark - -Ajit Kumar Singh, SAIR
Orissa: Creeping Consolidation - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Andhra Pradesh: Maoist Free Fall - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Bihar: Unremitting Rampage - -Ajit Kumar Singh, SAIR
West Bengal: The Bitter Fruit of Neglect - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan , SAIR
Jharkhand: On the Boil - -Ajit Kumar Singh, SAIR
Bihar: Macabre Reminder - -Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
West Bengal: Lalgarh: Eruption Unimpeded - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan, SAIR
Orissa: Without Will, Purpose or Capacity - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan, SAIR
Maharashtra: Red Surge in Gadchiroli - -Ajit Kumar Singh , SAIR
Chhattisgarh: Ages of Unreason - -Ajai Sahni , SAIR
Jharkhand: Steady Erosion - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan, SAIR
Lalgarh: Paradigm Case - -Ajai Sahni, SAIR
India: Maoists and the Elections- -Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
Andhra Pradesh: From Tactical Retreat to Disordered Flight - -Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
Chhattisgarh: Chasing a False Peace - -Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
Maharashtra: Harsh Reminder - -Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
Orissa: Fissures in Red - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan, SAIR
Bihar: Ambiguous Gains - -Ajit Kumar Singh, SAIR
Orissa: State of Denial - -Fakir Mohan Pradhan, SAIR
West Bengal: State Myopia, Maoist Consolidation - -Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
The Maoist Threat: Inescapable Illusions - -Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
Arunachal Pradesh: New Command in an Old Frontier - -Wasbir Hussain, SAIR
Chhattisgarh: Ill-prepared and Vulnerable - -Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
Maharashtra: Beyond 'Spillovers' - -Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
Bihar: The State's Enveloping Failure-- Bibhu Prasad Routray ,SAIR
Jharkhand: Tentative Crystallisation against the Maoists --Bibhu Prasad Routray ,SAIR
Orissa: The Maoists March On --Prasanta Kumar Pradhan ,SAIR
Bihar: Deceptive Calm-- Bibhu Prasad Routray ,SAIR
Maharashtra: No Scope for Smugness-- Bibhu Prasad Routray ,SAIR
Andhra Pradesh: The State Advances, the Maoists Retreat-- Ajai Sahni
Jharkhand - Paralysis and Drift-- Ajai Sahni ,SAIR
Asleep in Chhattisgarh --Ajai Sahni ,SAIR
Orissa: Maoist Citadel in Malkangiri-- Prasanta Kumar Pradhan ,SAIR
Maoists: Creeping Malignancy-- Ajai Sahni ,SAIR
Yet another 'surprise' strike -- Bibhu Prasad Routray
The Maoists: Their Decisions, Our Abiding Omissions -- Ajai Sahni, SAIR
Lurching towards a Crisis -- Bibhu Prasad Routray, SAIR
Silent Maoist Consolidation -- Prasanta Kumar Pradhan, SAIR
What Maoists Want -- Ajai Sahni, SAIR
A Tactical Retreat by the Maoists -- Ajit Kumar Singh, SAIR
Maoists: Deadly Arsenal -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Maoism: Expansive Vision -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Bihar & Jharkhand: Playground of the Maoists -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Andhra Pradesh: Maoist Reverses… but will they last? -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
West Bengal: Polls Under a Maoist Shadow -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Maoist: The Truth Won't Go Away -- Ajai Sahni, SAIR
Orissa: Overrunning the State -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
'Misunderestimating' the Maoist -- Ajai Sahni, SAIR
Chhattisgarh: Populist Follies, Confounded State -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
The Red Revolution's Economy -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
New Blood in a War Without End -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
The Shape of Things to Come -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
IMaoist Flowering Under benign Neglect -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Realities of a Peaceful Election -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Red Spred Over Jharkhand -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Dangers of Vigilantism -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Bitter Fruits of a False Peace -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
West Bengal: Naxalbari Redux -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Uproar in the South, Strike in the North -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Terror on the Fringes -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Reality Bites -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Contagion in Orissa -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Back to square one… and worse -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
The Economy at Risk -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
What, Me Worry? -- Ajai Sahni & Saji Cherian, SAIR
Left Wing Extremist Consolidation Undermines Electoral Processes -- Sanjay K. Jha, SAIR
Qualified Gains against Terror --K P S Gill, SAIR
Maoist Insurgencies: The Eclipse of Governance - Ajai Sahni , SAIR
While We Were Sleeping -- Ajai Sahni, SAIR
A Compact of Fire -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Bad Medicine for a Red Epidemic -- Ajai Sahni, SAIR
Unprincipled Peace, Expanding Violence -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Another Throw of the Dice -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Tactical Harakiri -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Left Wing Rampage -- Saji Cherian, SAIR
Emerging Co-operation Against Maoist Subversion-- P G Rajamohan, SAIR
Synchronized Onslaught -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Maoist Incursions across Open Borders --P G Rajamohan, SAIR
Democracy vs. 'People's War' -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Violence Without End -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Vigilantes in a Cycle of Violence -- Nihar Nayak, SAIR
Growing Concern -- Sanjay K Jha, SAIR
The MCC in Bihar and Jharkhand -- Sanjay K Jha, SAIR
A Blow to the Bastion, but Naxalites Still a Force -- P.V. Ramana, SAIR
The Compact Revolutionary Zone -- Sanjay K. Jha, SAIR
Jharkhand: Leftist Carnage -- Sanjay K. Jha, SAIR
Expanding Left-Wing Violence -- Sanjay K. Jha, SAIR
Bihar: The Privatisation of Terror -- Sanjay K. Jha, SAIR
The Maoist Maze -- Sanjay K. Jha, SAIR
A False Peace and More Violence -- Sanjay K. Jha, SAIR
Maoists in Orissa: Growing Tentacles and a Dormant State -- Nihar Nayak, Faultlines
Naxalism: Retreat of civil Governance -- Ajai Sahni, Faultlines
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/maoist/Assessment/2013/bihar.htm
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