By IANS
Ranchi : They number no more than 3,000. But Jharkhand’s Maoists are keeping over 45,000 police personnel on tenterhooks.
The superiority in numbers and weapons is not helping the security forces to meet the challenges of Maoist guerrillas who employ sneak and at times audacious strikes to overwhelm the enemy.
And the rebels resort to surprise hit-and-run tactics. They decide where to hit, and when.
A total of five Maoist groups are active in Jharkhand. Police put their total strength at 3,000. But they add that the numbers are no indication of their real strength.
A police officer who did not want to be identified said that it was unfair to ask why a numerically superior police force was not put down rebels far fewer in number.
“Do not compare the manpower. Maoists are waging guerrilla war. We will prove our superiority when the Maoists confront us directly,” the officer told IANS.
He cited the example of the late forest brigand Veerapan who managed to elude paramilitary forces as well as the police of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for years with less than 100 men under his command.
Like Veerappan, Maoists take advantage of forests and porous border to always be one step ahead of others, the official said.
Around 45,000 Jharkhand Police personnel and state companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in the state to tackle the Maoists. The state government has spent over Rs.2 billion on the modernisation of the police but Maoist attacks continue unabated.
Of the five rebel groups in Jharkhand, the dominant Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) commands 2,700 men and women, and enjoys the support of its units in all other states in India.
The Tritiya Prastuti Committee has 70 members, the Jharkhand Liberation Tiger 40 while the Sasashtra Jansanghrash Shakti Morcha (SJSM) and Jharkhand Prastuti Committee have around 60 members each, according to police estimates.
According to Gauri Shankar Rath, the additional director general of police, those who could not get a place in CPI-Maoist following the merger of the Maoist Communist Centre and People’s War Group joined SJSM.
He said the four groups other than CPI-Maoist were at loggerheads over extorting money from development funds from contractors and traders.
Maoists are believed to collect around Rs.3 billion a year in extortion money from development works and contractors, according to the police.
The CPI-Maoist is well armed, its guerrillas possessing AK rifles, landmines, grenades and wireless systems.
Hundreds have been killed in Maoist related violence in the state in the last seven years. The toll includes 645 civilians and 290 security personnel.