Additional forces to be deployed to avoid untoward incidents during elections: Police

Deployment of additional force has been requested to avoid any untoward incident that could be caused by the Maoists during the forthcoming Assembly elections, said Sukhendu Hira, SP Jhargram.

It may be mentioned that the state government has taken several steps to get rid of the problems that was caused by the Maoists during the erstwhile Left Front government. Moreover, there has been no report of any unrest due to the Maoist in the state for the past few years.

The police have recently noticed certain activists of the Maoists in the bordering area of the state. They are not in a position to carry out any attack using firearms. But they are visiting the nearby villages to once again make people believe in their ideology. The police, however, do not want to take any chance to let them carry out any activities. Thus there is a need of additional forces during the elections.

On February 15, 2010, the Maoists had attacked the EFR camp at Silda and killed 24 jawans. They had looted more than 50 firearms and cartridges. On Monday, Gyanwant Singh, IG (Western range) and SP Jhargram attended a programme to pay homage to the martyrs.

Hira said about the need of additional force during the elections after attending Monday’s programme.

It may be mentioned that the top brass of the state police have already started gathering information about the activities of the Maoists in the bordering villages in Jharkhand. A team of the state intelligence branch had visited a Maoist infested area in an adjoining state a few weeks ago. The raid was conducted based on a tip off that a Maoist leader from West Bengal had taken shelter in a village in the neighbouring state. He had been staying in disguise. But, somehow, the leader had received information about the raid and had managed to flee from the village.