Bihar Extremist Groups Control Jehanabad

The government's writ no longer runs in some areas of Jehanabad district of Bihar, where the extremists groups hold sway.

Police sources said the repeated pleas to the state police headquarters to provide the basic infrastructure and to launch a special drive to curb the extremist menace had so far met with little response.

The district police had demanded 15 companies of additional armed forces, 16 jeeps and 31 wireless sets.

Sources said the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) was posing a serious challenged as it was receiving training from the Peoples War Group of Andhra Pradesh and some banned groups of Uttar Pradesh. They have managed to acquire sophisticated arms and land mine techniques.

Besides the MCC, the Ranvir Sena, which has become a terror in Bhojpur district of central Bihar, was also gaining ground in Jehanabad and its adjoining areas.

Sources said the banks of Some river from Arwal to Vikram have become a haven for the Ranvir Sena activists.

The extremist organisations were virtually running a parallel government in their areas of influence by holding jan adalats (people's courts) throughout the year.

The MCC and CPI(ML) had launched economic blockade against the well-off farmers in about 48 villages.

Twelve people accused of booth capturing surrendered in the jan adalat of the CPI (ML) following the economic blockade. The party sources said their activists had to intervene as the administration failed to initiate steps against the accused.

The naxalite groups alleged that feudal farmers have taken the government in their possession and were exploiting the labourers.

Sources said the supporters of the MCC attacked and kidnapped 12 people from Lodipur village in Kurtha block in July last year.

Later, the extremists held a jan adalat and awarded death sentence to one of them and attacked the others for theft.

The banned Party Unity, besides snatching licensed arms from different people, gunned down a CPI activist at Tehta market in the district last August.

About 500 armed supporters of the Party Unity used dynamite to blast Congress (I) MLA Jagdish Sharma's father's house. The MLA was an accused in the fodder scam. The extremists also attacked four different police personnel and snatched their service revolvers.

A war of attrition between MCC and Party Unity which claimed at least six lives in the past six months continued during the year.