Naxals hit mark, coal movement comes to halt

The mines of the Central Coalfields Ltd at Piparwar — which produce and supply over 50,000 tonnes every day — were also deserted as its entire 2,000-strong workforce, comprising workers, supervisors and managers, preferred to stay indoors.

On the National Highway between Ranchi and Khelari that is normally full of trucks laden with coal, there was virtually no traffic. The dhabas, paan shops, petrol pumps and tyre repair joints along the road were closed. At Hatia railway station, several goods trains carrying coal and oil rakes were stranded.

After a landmine blast in Jharkhand’s Koderma district killing 12 policemen yesterday, there was no report of any violence from any part today. The only incident reported was of a group of 40 Naxalites belonging to the PWG bombing a railway track between Japla and Garhwa station of the Eastern Railways this morning. But the track was repaired and traffic restored by the evening, said DGP R.R. Prasad.

Last night, 150-odd armed MCC men had swooped down on the railway station at Raibachra, 3 km from Khelari, broken the signal board, doors, windows and furniture, beaten up its 12-odd staff (including Manager Inderjeet Gaur) and burnt its records. For at least 48 hours, traffic of both passenger and goods trains on the entire Barkakana-Barwadih section of the Eastern Railways remained disrupted.

Nursing wounds at his home, Gaur, who was beaten with the butt of a gun, thanks his stars for escaping death. He invited the attack because he refused to follow the Naxalite diktat to stop trains from plying during the blockade.

Shaken by the attack on their colleagues in Koderma, policemen are now discreetly falling in line. While DGP R.R. Prasad says all police stations in the 14-odd Naxalite-infested districts of the state had been reinforced with men and material, the constables toting SLRs confess they are scared. Besides the Jharkhand police, 15 companies of CRPF and two companies of the Rapid Action Force have been deployed to maintain law and order in the districts. But admitting he had not gone out patrolling as told, a constable says: ‘‘Ham log ka jan payara nahin hai ka? (Don’t we value our lives?).’’ The Indian Express didn’t find any police patrol any where in the town or the highway.

ASI Bishnudeo Narain recounts how the Naxals laid a trap to kill the policemen in Koderma. The Satgawaon police station got a tip-off that a body was lying near the Angar village. Several policemen were rushed to the spot in a Jeep and a bus. All the 12 aboard the bus died when it hit the mine.