Author: J P Yadav
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 25, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/276765.html
Each day, when Sub Inspector R L Thakur gazes
at the setting sun falling behind the hills facing his police station, he
shivers. The gathering darkness raises the fear of a roar from these very
quiet hills - the roar of gunfire and the spectre of a Naxalite attack. Staring
at the steady fire in the community kitchen, he whispers, "SLRs or carbines
won't be effective from that distance. But they can shoot us down using an
LMG (Light Machine Gun) from the hilltop." And Thakur knows very well
that the Maoists have LMGs in numbers even he cannot comprehend.
The vulnerability of Banke Bazar police station
is something that everyone here is aware of. Understandably so, as it is located
just on the brink of the region beyond which the outlawed Maoists hold fort.
Every man in uniform here acknowledges that the writ of the state is limited
to a radius of just 3-4 km around the police station though its jurisdiction
spreads across a radius of 15 km. "Beyond that, we hardly tread,"
says a Bihar Military Police (BMP) jawan.
Ironically, this sense of fear is all-pervading
despite the fact that Banke Bazar is among the best-equipped police stations
in the Naxal heartland of Bihar. It has a strength of 20 jawans (16 constables
and four head constables) of the BMP armed with SLRs and carbines. The police
station on the Sherghati-Imamganj state highway has a concrete building, two
watch towers and a fortified boundary wall. The compound houses the headquarter
of BMP-1 where at any given time 20 "Gurkha" jawans stand guard.
But consider these:
o For the past two months, the police station
has remained in darkness as the kerosene generator is out of order and there's
no mechanic to repair it.
o Availability of electricity is less than
two hours a day.
o There is only one jeep for the entire station.
Even this gives up as maintenance cost is difficult to get.
o The phone line of the station lies disconnected
for the past four months due to non-payment of bills.
o The officer-in-charge does not have an official
mobile and uses his private set for communication.
o Wireless set is in working condition but
charging its battery becomes difficult due to lack of power.
o The police station does not have any anti-landmine
vehicle or mine-detecting devices. The only hope in case of a Naxal attack
rests with the CRPF camp 15 km west at Imamganj on the same road.
As darkness descends, the hills across the
road that run into Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh loom like ghosts. By 7 pm, all
shops in this market down their shutters, men in uniform get inside the police
station. Two Gurkha jawans rush to take positions atop the two watchtowers.
A third paces up the two-storeyed building where BMP jawans are housed while
a fourth takes position behind the sandbags at the entrance. The driver runs
and brings the police station's lone vehicle, a jeep, from the roadside to
the "safe zone" inside the police station. Others get to the routine
business of lighting kerosene lanterns and two cooks start the kitchen fire
for dinner.
As the jawans wait for food, a car screeches
to a halt outside the police station. The sentry at the gate shouts: "Halt...
Kaun Hai" and takes position with the SLR. Two people step out of the
car and reply "Dost" (Friend). Inside, jawans waiting for dinner
panic and then relax after the two people identify themselves as prominent
locals and say they want to meet the officer-in-charge. They leave after a
few minutes of conversation.
"At night we don't take chances. Anyone
passing the police station is asked to halt and identify. The sentry at the
gate, on the watchtowers and the rooftop are vigilant throughout the night.
With God's grace we have not faced any attack so far", says SI Thakur
(40) who was posted to this police station in November last year. His tenure
here is for two years while BMP jawans get transferred every three months.
Thakur lives here alone while his wife and children reside in Muzaffarpur.
Fighting the Naxals isn't top of the mind.
The Nitish Kumar government has so far not gone all out against the Naxalites,
maintaining that an all-out offensive won't help solve the problem. Kumar
himself has said several times that he is concerned about development in Naxal-affected
areas since lack of development is at the root of the problem.
When contacted IG (Operations) S K Bhardwaj
acknowledged that despite some improvement, police stations still have a long
way to go to counter the Naxalite terror. Asked in particular about the lack
of basic infrastructure at Banke Bazar police station, Bhardwaj blamed the
state Home and Finance departments for delaying sanction of projects. "These
departments take a lot of time to sanction projects. But in recent times,
the situation has improved and the results will soon be visible on the ground,"
he told The Indian Express.
Bhardwaj said the topmost item on their agenda
was to fortify all police stations in the Naxal-affected regions. "Money
has been shifted to the Police Building Construction Department and work will
start soon. We are also getting assistance under the Security Related Expenditure
(SRE) from the Centre," he said.
"The new focus areas of the Naxalites
are the plains of north Bihar bordering Nepal and the situation is becoming
grave each day," he said.
For now, the orders are loud and clear: "protect
your life first and then arms and ammunition". Not surprising since every
Naxal attack is aimed at looting arms and ammunition. "There is no night
patrolling. Even during the day we don't step out in their territory without
a posse of CRPF men," said Thakur. In the entire block, spread over a
radius of 20 km, there are only two police stations. Police pickets set up
earlier were withdrawn after Naxals began striking.
Given the lack of any infrastructure, police
have adopted what they call a "practical approach": don't meddle
in Naxal affairs. Local villagers say how even after reports that Naxals held
"kangaroo courts," the police have refrained from carrying out raids.
"How can we? They plant landmines that can blow us and we don't have
the means to detect them," says a police officer. The one silver lining
here is that normal law and order problems like murder, loot and abductions
are almost non-existent. "In 2007, only two cases of petty robbery were
lodged. In 2008 so far, two thefts and one murder have been recorded,"
said Thakur, adding that Naxals settle most of the disputes related to land
and property and don't allow petty criminals to thrive.
So every night that passes here without an
incident is attributed to God's grace.
