Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05CALCUTTA7
2005-01-10 05:56:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Consulate Kolkata
Cable title:  

SENIOR POLICEMAN AMONG SEVEN KILLED IN MAOIST BIHAR BLAST

Tags:  PTER PHUM IN 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS CALCUTTA 000007 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PHUM IN
SUBJECT: SENIOR POLICEMAN AMONG SEVEN KILLED IN MAOIST BIHAR BLAST

REF: 04 CAL 450, 04 CAL 0143, 01 CAL 0156

UNCLAS CALCUTTA 000007

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PHUM IN
SUBJECT: SENIOR POLICEMAN AMONG SEVEN KILLED IN MAOIST BIHAR BLAST

REF: 04 CAL 450, 04 CAL 0143, 01 CAL 0156


1. Prior to the approaching state assembly elections in Bihar
and Jharkhand, a district police chief of Munger in Bihar, K.C
Surendrababu, along with six other policemen, were killed on
Wednesday January 5th, when their vehicle was blown-up by a
remote-controlled landmine. The landmine was allegedly planted
by the newly formed ultra-Left -- the Communist Party of India
(Maoist). The Maoists removed the firearms of the slain
policemen after they died in the blast.


2. The Maoists served a warning to the Bihar government after
the later banned their proposed rally at the capital city Patna
in the first week of December 2004. The Bihar police had
arrested about 300 Maoists sympathizers, who had gathered at
Patna to attend the rally. Following this, the Maoist had
launched several attacks in December on Bihar and Jharkhand
railway stations. Sources in the Bihar Police told Post that the
Wednesday's incidence could be termed as one of the first major
events by the CPI (Maoist) after its formation in September last
year following the merger of Maoist Communist Center and the
Peoples War.


3. (SBU) According to our consulate contact in the Bihar police,
the slain district police chief, along with his staff, had gone
to supervise a joint operation, with the help of neighboring
Jamui district police, in connection of the looting of guns and
ammunitions from the police posted at Railway station. State
Home Secretary, Girish Shankar, said that the blast took place
in the evening in which the vehicle they were returning in was
thrown-up several feet above the ground due to the three
explosives embedded on the road. There were no survivors and all
the bodies have been recovered. Surendrababu, who was a native
of Andhra Pradesh and was the 1997-batch Bihar-cadre Indian
Police Service (IPS) officer, died on the spot along with his
bodyguard, driver, and four other policemen. This is the second
incidence in Bihar in which an IPS officer has been killed in a
landmine blast operated by the Maoists. In October 2000,
Logardagga (now in Jharkhand, then Bihar) district police chief
Ajay Kumar Singh was also killed in the same manner along with
eight other policemen.


4. As against Andhra Pradesh the Bihar government has ruled-out
all possibilities of offering talks with the Naxalites. The
Bihar Chief Secretary K.A.H. Subramanian has categorically said
-"the blast is only targeting the policemen and it has forced us
to rethink how to tackle the Naxalite menace. The present
atmosphere is not conducive for holding talks with the
Naxalites." Keeping in view that the state government is now
planning to set-up a special Naxal cell in the police
headquarters at Patna. "We have an Inspector General of Police
who supervises operations against insurgency, but we will soon
have a full-fledged Naxal cell to effectively check this
menace," said the Chief Secretary.


5. (SBU) Comment: As the state assembly elections draws close,
such incidents in Bihar and Jharkhand are likely to go up. At
the same time, this incident has adversely affected the moral of
Bihar police. "It could just be a curtain raiser," said a
high-level police contact in Bihar. He added -"the Maoists,
normally always oppose polling and they have shown their
displeasure through violence in the past". During the 2004
general elections about 29 policemen were killed in a single
incident in April in Jharkhand. Both the states -- Bihar and
Jharkhand, are to go to the polls in three phases on February 3,
15 and 23. End Comment.





SMITH