Maoists strike again, kill SP Amarjit Balihar and 4 cops in Jharkhand

NEW DELHI: A Superintendent of Police and four policemen were killed in Jharkhand on July 2, in yet another daring attack by Maoists.

2003-batch IPS officer Amarjit Balihar, who was serving as the SP of Patur district and was known to have a tough stand against the left-wing extremists, was ambushed by Naxals around 3 pm while he was returning to Pakur after attending a meeting of senior police officers in Dumka on how to tackle Naxals. Balihar was killed along with his driver and three police guards near the Amrapa forests while four other policemen are said to be seriously injured in the attack. The Naxals first exploded bombs to halt the SP’s car and a police escort vehicle and sprayed both the vehicles with bullets after surrounding them from all sides. Many women cadres were also part of the Naxal attack team and the SP is believed to have been shot at least a dozen times leading to his death on the spot. It is believed that the Naxals were monitoring the SP’s movement since some weeks.

Home Ministry officials said the SP’s of various districts in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were asked recently to take adequate security precautions while on patrols in Naxal-infested areas of their respective jurisdictions. This is the second major attack by Naxals recently after Congress leaders were targeted by the Maoists in Chhattisgarh in May.

The attack comes on a day when the home ministry told a parliamentary consultative committee that the core armed capabilities of CPI (Maoist) have not suffered any significant damage despite decline in violence levels. “Jharkhand continues to be the worst Naxal violence affected state with 34 % of all incidents and 26% of all deaths due to Naxal violence, followed by Chhattisgarh,” the home ministry said in a note to the consultative committee on Tuesday.

“The CPI-Maoist has focused on organisational consolidation, expanding its area of influence and strengthening its propaganda machinery, besides upgrading its military tactics,” the home ministry has told the committee.