PATNA/NEW DELHI, 15 November 2005 — Five people were killed when 1,000 left-wing Maoist rebels freed more than 300 prisoners late on Sunday night in dramatic raids on the district prison in Jehanabad, south of Bihar’s capital city Patna.
The Moaists attacked the prison after cutting off power connections in and around the jail areas. They killed a jail guard and a member of a private landlord army. They also abducted at least two dozen members of a private army of upper caste landlords who were jail inmates, police said.
The Bihar administration, meanwhile, has sought bullet-resisting choppers and 25 companies of central armed forces in the wake of the jailbreak in the Maoist-infested Jehanabad district.
Top Maoist leader Ajay Kanu, held at the prison has been reported missing. Angry relatives of prisoners manhandled the district magistrate Rana Avadesh when he went to survey the situation at the prison.
The union Home Ministry, which admitted there has been a security failure, met to discuss the situation.
The police lines in the heart of Jehanabad were also hit to prevent any reinforcements from reaching the prison. The rebels battled for two hours with prison guards and retreated before security reinforcements reached the scene.
The raiders are said to have kidnapped at least 20 members of the Ranvir Sena held at the prison and at least one of them died during the raid. Authorities have deployed paramilitary troops as several hundred members of the Ranvir Sena gathered at the prison to protest.
Claiming that chaotic situation in Jehanabad stirred by extremists’ attack was under “control, Union Minister of State for Home Prakash Jaiswal said yesterday that additional central paramilitary forces had been rushed to the area. “The situation is now under control,” Jaiswal said.
Jaiswal admitted there were only eight to 10 men at the prison when the Naxal group (Communist Party of India-Maoists) attacked on Sunday night. “The main reason for the jailbreak was because almost the entire force guarding the jail had been deployed for poll duty,” he said.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil held a review meeting with senior officials yesterday morning and asked them to provide all possible assistance to Bihar. “We will try to increase the number of paramilitary forces once they are eased out after the Nov. 19 elections in the state,” Home Secretary Vinod K. Duggal told reporters. The center has decided to rush nearly 1,000 additional central paramilitary personnel besides deploying two helicopters for air surveillance in Bihar, Duggal said.
Admitting security lapses, Duggal said: “While the attack was repulsed from police lines and college, the Naxalites were successful in climbing the walls of Jehanabad prison from where they were successful in releasing their men besides abducting 12-40 people of Ranvir Sena. Our aim is to get them released besides carrying out pursuit against the culprits and ensure that it is successful.”
The rebels surrounded the entire town and ordered people to stay indoors. Eyewitnesses said at least 1,000 armed attackers were involved in the incident. They first blew up Jehanabad police lines outside the city. The second explosion took place at Jehanabad prison. The third blast went off on a bridge that connects the police lines to the city. The blasts occurred within minutes of each other.
“Their main intention was to release their associates. And in order to do this they had to distract the security forces,” said the IG for Patna zone, A.S. Imran. Police reinforcements reached the area two hours after the raid, but by then the rebel operation had already ended.
Official sources said over a dozen live bombs, wires, batteries and a police uniform were found at different places in the town and people who are out on the streets in thousands were asked not to venture near them or touch unclaimed objects.
The local police officers claimed to have been aware of extremists’ plan, they were caught off-guard by its timing and venue.
“We were anticipating an attack on our police stations in the north or north-west. We did not expect the attack on the police lines,” Imran said in Jehanabad.
Dressed in police uniform, the Maoists used a wooden ladder to scale the walls of the prison.
Once inside, they opened the main entrance of the jail to allow their comrades in, according to eyewitnesses. They created a bomb scare to make prisoners rush from the jail. With a loudspeaker held in hand, a Maoist ordered the prisoners to flee saying that they had a planted a huge bomb in the jail which was about to explode. With prisoners rushing for the exit, utter chaos prevailed in the jail.
The Maoists also shot dead Bade Sharma, a leader of the banned Ranvir Sena, a private militia of upper caste landowners. Sharma was dragged out and then shot dead.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has blamed the center for Sunday’s attack. The leader of opposition in the Parliament and BJP chief L.K. Advani said yesterday in Patna: “The center’s policy vis-à-vis Naxalites has proved to be a total disaster. The central government’s mishandling of the Naxalite problem is at the root of the banned outfit functioning with impunity.”
Addressing a separate press conference, BJP general secretary and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharti said the Naxalite attack had proved beyond doubt that “there is no rule of law” in Bihar. Terming the incident as “serious,” she said the center as well as the governor owed an explanation to the people as the incident had occurred under president’s rule.
