IPS officer Amarjit Balihar
The body of 53-year-old Amarjit Balihar was brought to Ranchi, his hometown, this morning. Mr Balihar, an IPS officer, was killed in a Maoist ambush yesterday in Dumka district of Jharkhand near the border with West Bengal.
Mr Balihar had been posted as the Superintendent of Police, Pakur, only last month. Last evening, he was returning with eight policemen in two cars to Pakur after a meeting in Dumka when the vehicles were ambushed between Kathikund and Gopikandhar. They had just crossed Jamniganon, about 40 km away from home.
A volley of bullets hit the cars from the surrounding forest in an attack so sudden that Mr Balihar and his men did not even have the chance to fight back. The SP and five others died on the spot. Two policemen were critically injured and are in hospital.
Mr Balihar was known for his tough stand against Maoists and had been their target ever since he took charge at Pakur. He is the first cop killed in a Maoist attack in Jharkhand since the state was carved out of Bihar. In undivided Bihar, in October 2000, Lohardaga Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar Singh was killed by the Maoists.
Pakur, or even Dumka, are not considered Maoist strongholds, though sporadic Maoist violence had been reported from both districts for the past five years and the police had said that the intelligence network would be tightened in the two areas.
Stunned by the brutal attack the Jharkhand Police will now review its intelligence network.
"We will review and a special drive will be carried out against the Maoists," state Home Secretary N N Pandey told reporters when asked whether an intelligence failure had allowed the attack yesterday.