ROURKELA: Renewed Maoist violence in the bordering forests of West Singhbhum of Jharkhand has become a worry for Rourkela police in Sundargarh district. On Thursday afternoon, three CRPF personnel were injured in IED blast in Jharkhand’s Goielkera between Meralguda and Hathiburu of Kolhan forest. The same day, security personnel of Jharkhand also recovered 51 IEDs.
Last month, at least 11 security personnel and two civilians were killed in separate IED explosions by the ultras in different forests of West Singhbhum. The places where the blasts took place were around 50 km to 75 km away from Sundargarh’s border point Jareikela.
Sources privy to the Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in West Singhbhum said the Maoists are increasingly feeling squeezed with Jharkhand security forces intensifying search and area domination operations since second week of January. The rebels have resorted to counter-offensive by planting IEDs in forest areas frequented by security forces to create deterrence.
They further informed that the rebels led by CPI (Maoist) Politburo member Misir Besra, who is carrying `1 crore reward on his head, is active in Jharkhand’s dense forests of Porahat, Kolhan and Saranda. Incidentally, Sundargarh shares a stretch of around 75 km common forest borders with Saranda from Koida to Bisra. All past incidents of Maoist violence in Rourkela police jurisdiction have been attributed to the Maoists in Jharkhand.
Significantly, no major Maoist violence has been reported in Sundargarh side of the border for some years now because the ultras are getting little room to regain base in West Singhbhum district amid strategic forest deployment of three CoBRA units and seven CRPF battalions.
Sources said the Jharkhand Maoists usually use the forest pockets of Sundargarh as temporary hideouts but avoiding clash with Rourkela police. Rourkela-based DIG (Western Range) Niti Sekhar said in coordination with the CRPF, police are continuously carrying out search and area domination operation to prevent any Maoist infiltration.