By IANS
Patna : After police stations, the jails in Bihar are now facing the threat of Maoist attacks.
A day after intelligence reports warned the government about a possible Jehanabad-like attack by Maoists to free its members lodged in several prisons of Bihar, security was beefed up in all jails of the state.
Around 1,000 Maoist guerrillas had stormed the Jehanabad jail in November 2005, and freed its members lodged there.
"All the district magistrates and the superintendents of police have been directed to tighten the security of jails," Sandip Paundrik, IG (Prisons), told IANS.
Paundrik said the administrations of nearly a dozen jails located in the Maoist-affected districts were asked to deploy additional forces and maintain extra vigil.
The government is also mulling shifting several Maoist activists to different jails in view of the threat, sources said.
A large number of Maoists are lodged in the jails of Gaya, Patna, Jehanabad, Masaurih, Motihari, Jamui, Begaha, Buxar, Begusarai, Bettiah and Sitamarhi.
Maoist leader Ajay Kanu, the suspected mastermind of the Jehanabad jailbreak, is currently lodged in the Beur jail here. He was arrested on February 2 this year from a village in Gaya district, about 100 km from here, by a joint team of the Special Task Force and the district police.