The intelligence department of Jharkhand has alerted the home department that Naxalites have been planning for major attacks to disrupt the ensuing assembly polls.
Naxalites have their base in 18 of the 24 districts in Jharkhand.
The Naxalites blew up two school buildings in Banbirwa and Kone villages in Latehar district on Monday night. The two schools were kept reserve for the security forces as make-shift camps during the Assembly elections.
One official in the state intelligence department said that Naxals had strengthen their activities in 18 Naxal-infested districts and sending messages to villagers not to cast their votes in the elections.
The Union Home Ministry has decided to send 40 companies of Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) to Jharkhand for holding free and fair polls.
Bokaro and Patna police in their joint operation on Tuesday at a co-operative colony in Bokaro, recovered one AK-47 rifle, two INSAS rifles, three hand grenades and nearly 32,000 cartridges of 12 bore, 22 guns and Naxal literature.
In a related incident, responding to an order of the Jharkhand High Court dated September 16 on a public interest litigation filed by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), the state government vacated 28 of the 43 schools which it had occupied for the use of security forces.
It might be noted that Naxalism in Jharkhand came back under scanner again in the aftermath of the recent beheading of a police officer that grabbed national headlines.
After the incident, the Centre has vowed to launch an operation against the Naxalites after the Jharkhand assembly polls.
