New Delhi:
Could Amarjit Balihari, Superintendent of Police, Pakur, and his six men have escaped the Maoist ambush yesterday at Kathikunda on the Dumka-Pakur border in Jharkhand?
An internal assessment of the Home Ministry and the state government has reportedly revealed that the Jharkhand state intelligence wing had warned about a possible attack, but the warnings were not acted upon.
A day after the ambush in which the Jharkhand policemen were killed, the Home Ministry sent out alerts to all Maoist affected states asking them to be prepared for more such attacks. The ministry has warned that Maoists will be looking to strike in areas which are not considered to be Maoist dominated, as they did yesterday.
Big anti-Maoist operations are on in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, and several top leaders of the CPI (Maoist) are surrounded and trapped. The government believes attacks like yesterday's are designed to force a diversion of forces from these operations, so that the Maoist leaders can escape.
In forests around Latehar in Jharkhand, security forces are closing in on a group of 300 Maoists, a group that includes several top leaders. About eight suspected Maoists have been killed in Latehar in the last few days when they tried to break through the advancing security forces.
The centre has also asked officials to be more careful when travelling and has circulated a detailed "standard operating procedure" after a review today.
It has advised that officials be more discreet about their travel plans to prevent such attacks. The Home Ministry believes that the Maoists knew exactly how and when Mr Balihari would travel yesterday. "The attack was planned to the last detail and this could have happened only if the Maoists were aware of when and how he would be traveling back," a Home Ministry official said.
The SP was returning to Pakur from a meeting in Dumka when he was killed.