Police had a whiff of possible attacks

A day after Naxalites in Bihar attacked a jail housing their comrades in Jehanabad in south Bihar, state Home Secretary H C Sirohi and Inspector General of Police (central zone) A S Nimbran admitted there were early intelligence inputs about a possible attack by the Maoist rebels and blamed their ill preparedness to the security deployment of troops for the November 13 polling for the Bihar Assembly.

However, the magnitude of the Naxalite offensive came as a surprise as they had chosen to lie low despite giving a call for boycott of Bihar elections. "The underground rebels chose November 13 for the attack as a large chunk of state's police force and central para-military forces (CPMF) were busy holding the third phase of Assembly elections," Sirohi said.

The Naxalites, who had virtually taken control of all entry and exit points of the town exploded a series of bombs in front of the district collectorate, residence of the district judge and local SS College where a CRPF camp had been set up (due to location of the strong room where electronic voting machines used during assembly elections are kept).

Nearly a thousand Naxalites armed with weapons like self-loading rifles and machine guns and clad in police uniforms, launched near simultaneous assaults on the police lines, jail and a CRPF camp located in the heart of the south Bihar town around 9 pm.

The entire town reverberated with sounds of gunfire and bomb explosions for nearly two hours as Naxalites commanded the civilians on public address system not to venture out of their houses saying they had no enmity with them and that they wanted to teach the police a lesson.

Amid the gunbattle, some of the militants scaled the wall of the jail and then opened its gates from inside before breaking open the locks of different wards to free their comrades and kidnap their rival Ranvir Sena men.

The BJP has meanwhile demanded the resignation of not just the Governor of Bihar, Buta Singh, but also home minister Shivraj Patil and state Home Secretary HC Sirohi. "This is a clear failure of the Centre and this is not the first such incident. Similar incidents have taken place in Madhubani and Giridih last month," said party president LK Advani.