Naxals planning jail breaks? Centre asks Maoist-affected states to tighten security in prisons

NEW DELHI: Apprehending jail breaks by Naxals, the Centre has asked nine Maoist-affected states to tighten security in prisons where rebel leaders are lodged and check any attempt to get them freed.

The Home Ministry has told Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh that the Naxals have become desperate to get their jailed leaders freed as only a few leaders are still at large and active.

Official sources said the Central government conveyed to the states to tighten security inside and outside jails where the Naxal leaders are lodged and strengthen intelligence network to foil any attempt by the rebels to attack prisons.

The advisory came after security forces recovered a letter written by CPI(Maoist) top leader Muppalla Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathy to some senior cadres.

Ganapathy in his 17-page letter said the responsibility of the Naxal leaders still at large is to help their jailed comrades come out, either by obtaining bail or by jail break.

The top Naxal leader cited the jailbreak in Chaibasa in Jharkhand on January 17, 2011, when three senior Maoist leaders -- Motilal Soren, Raghunath Hembram and Mangru Mahato -- escaped by cutting the ventilators of their cells.

"A few comrades have broken jails, ridiculing the enemy's stern vigilance and surveillance system that are becoming stricter and more rigid day by day and joined the revolutionary movement again," the letter said.

Several senior Naxal leaders, including Kishenji and Azad, were killed by security forces in recent years, while leaders like Kobad Ghandy, Amitabh Bagchi and Saheb Chatterjee were arrested and lodged in jails.

Except three, all central committee leaders of the outfit, have been arrested or killed, leading to a leadership crisis.

Ganapathy also asked the jailed leaders to keep their "revolutionary spirit" high and turn prisons into centres of political training and struggle.

"Jails must be turned into centres of political training and struggle. We hope that all comrades will try to carry on studies with a long term view, to improve physical fitness, to preserve health, to write and send articles in various forms to the party magazines, to do literary work, to write experiences and send to the party and to well utilise the time in several ways," he said in the letter.