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TAMAR (JHARKHAND), FEBRUARY 26: The police station at Tamar is almost a hundred years old, built by the British in 1911. Today, this colonial structure has been turned into a fortress, complete with assault rifles, night vision devices, wireless sets, a bullet-proof Gypsy, even an anti-mines vehicle.

Night has set in at Tamar and the chowkidars, on the 6 pm to 6 am shift, stare into the darkness, their gaze fixed on the forests and the hills before them. Because Tamar is one of the forward posts in the state’s war against the Naxalites whose turf now extends beyond the boundaries of Jharkhand into West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Orissa.

At Tamar, you can tell that the securitymen are leaving nothing to chance. A new police station building is coming up and so are two watch towers. The three Sub-Inspectors, Munshi and the 40 constables of Jharkhand’s Special Task Force are all very young — in the age group 20-25, they are paid salaries ranging between Rs 5000 and Rs 20,000 every month — but they are willing to take on the Naxals, secure in the knowledge that should one of them get killed in action, at least the family would be compensated Rs 10 lakh.

The men here are forever on alert, aware that the Naxalites rely on terror tactics — some 150-200 of them swoop down on a police station, kill, loot arms and then melt into the forests. At times, when the police give chase, the counter-offensive takes them to the hills where the Naxalites, safely perched at vantage points, lob grenades and open fire with AK-47s and machine guns.

Tracking down the Naxalites is not easy. Most don’t use their own names and it’s difficult to zero-in on them. But that’s just one of the problem. What really frustrates the security forces is when the Naxalites cross the boundaries of Jharkhand and take refuge in neighbouring states.

“Most in their cadres have very little to do with ideology, They have formed bands, striking in one state and taking shelter in another. It’s a multi-million extortion racket and they mostly target corrupt government officials, contractors and businessmen,” said a police official.

On the Union Home Ministry’s directions, Jharkhand had signed MOUs with Orissa and Chhattisgarh to form a Joint Task Force and share inputs, communication and assist each other in anti-Naxal operations.

“Due to this mechanism, we succeeded in nabbing several hardcore Naxals,” said DIG R K Mallick. “Efforts are on to set up a separate force such as the Greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh. It can move from one area to another in search of the Naxals.”

But that may take some time. A STF staffer at Tamar said fighting in the hills was a problem. “We are trained to fight in the plains, not in forest and hills,” he said.

The 40 chowkidars, all from Tamar, were also supposed to gather information and relay it to the police station. But they hardly ever come up with any input on the Naxalites. Asked why they had failed, chowkidar Sonaram Mahato, 55, said: “If it becomes known that a villager is trying to pass on information, he is called a traitor and killed by the Naxalites. Many informants have been murdered, so no villager wants to cooperate with us.”

“But again, most villagers are not with the Naxalites. Some who joined them are ready to desert. If proper appointments are made, if they are trained and given cellphones, they will feed us information on regular basis,” Mahato said.

Morale at Tamar has never been very high. To keep the motivation level high, senior officers were told to make regular inspections. But the last inspection by the Ranchi SSP was on August 3, 2001. When The Indian Express sought his reaction, Ranchi SSP M S Bhatia, who has won praise for trying to enforce the law in the state capital, said: “As far as the inspection is concerned, it is the duty of the SP (Rural).”

Policemen in Tamar have another problem — their jobs are not clearly defined. Told to take on the Naxals, they also have to deal with day-to-day law and order work and conduct investigations. “The sooner our job is bifurcated, the better it will be,” said one of the policemen, not willing to be named. “If the Naxals can have special squads, why can’t we?”

A Joint Task Force which would allow policemen to track down Naxals even beyond the boundaries of the state is something they are all waiting for.