Lonely vigil

The attack was not expected, said West Bengal police chief Bhupinder Singh. Hes right security personnel were certainly sucker punched as the Maoists blazed into the Silda outpost of Eastern Frontier Rifles and sprayed fire,killing 25 policemen in the worst ever attack in the state. As it turns out,the camp was woefully defenceless,situated in the middle of a busy market,with nobody standing vigil over its entry and exit. The administration,however,chose to blame the people for not helping and warning them about impending attack. It is unclear who is protecting whom. The West Bengal security forces were spectacularly unprepared for any kind of assault. Many of the EFR constables were not trained to take on Maoists. In fact,the Silda camp was simply a station to look out for local CPM leaders,and doubled as a primary health centre. It had no watchtowers,or sentries at vantage points. Meanwhile,the Maoists seem to have their coordination ruthlessly worked out between the three states of Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand and West Bengal,as they carried out the mission and disappeared noiselessly into the wild.

This ambush underscores Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniums chillingly prescient reminder that policemen wear a death band on their heads when they go into the forest. Without any real equipment,vehicles or sophisticated technology,this band of men are entrusted with protecting the locals and taking on the Maoist onslaught. And yet,how are their lives valued? In Silda,it took 16 hours for bodies to be removed. Rescue operations began late,and many of the wounded were left to writhe to death. For a state government long accustomed to using the police force as party tool,it might take some mental adjustment to appreciate the tremendousness of their task,the stakes in their battle with the Maoists.

In the end,it takes a single life to put things in perspective. Constable Suraj Bahadur Thapas fiercely loving letter to his life,his plans for his children,his forebodings and his sense of the importance of his work are now merely words on a charred diary. But they should singe the state that employed him,and remind us of the terrible costs of this war on Naxalite terror. Intelligence failure is a compact phrase that covers many sins laxity of the kind witnessed in Silda is simply untenable,if we hope for any kind of success in tackling Indias biggest internal security threat.