M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Sept 8: Anjani Kumar Jha, a 2012 Jharkhand cadre IPS officer presently posted as Garhwa Superintendent of Police (SP) and a very important and strategic combatant in the contingent of the security forces comprising Latehar district police, CoBra and Jharkhand Jaguar in the ongoing massive onslaught against the Maoists perched on the Burha Pahar, spoke about the morale of the cops and officials and on other motley issues in this fight to the finish operations against the Burha Pahar Maoists.
Q: How is the morale of your boys?
A: It’s pretty high. They are all out to conquer the Burha Pahar. Every one of them is giving his best in this massive operation against the Maoists.
Q: It is said there is no inch of Burha Pahar that does not have landmines. What is your opinion on this?
A: Burha Pahar is a highly mined one. The Maoists have laid it for their safety. One never knows if the next step is on the mines below or not. There is a lurking danger of the mines all around here.
Q: Any fatal incident involving cows, goats and monkeys at Burha Pahar following them stepping on the mines?
A: There were episodes of this kind till 15 or 16 days ago only before we started trouncing this so-called invincible Burha Pahar. We came to know about goats and monkeys falling and losing lives due to the mines. These poor creatures have no one to write their obituaries. We the police have a lot of concern for them.
Q: There were incidents here when elephants of Palamu Tiger Reserve too either lost life in the mine blast or remained maimed for months before dying a miserable death. Isn’t it?
A: It had happened in the past but nowadays, goats and monkeys are the casualties of the Maoists’ barbaric technique.
Q: Landmines are the most sinister of all deceptive death traps. Isn’t Burha Pahar quite infamous for it?
A: The Maoists have laid the mines and are away from the site or location where they have laid them. We do not know if any Maoist would have been any reckless now to sit near the ‘battery and command wire’ to trigger it as any of the eyes of our troopers would have spotted such a fellow by now. Still, we don’t vouch for their not being around also. They may pop up in their heads. We are extremely alert and cautious. We have been negotiating the surface of the Burha Pahar with an extreme level of caution all for the mines. Every one of us knows there can’t be any with the mines. It is to be neutralised in a very professional and skillful manner.
Notably, Jharkhand police had launched a campaign against the use of the land mines wherein they had called the Maoists cowardice for using improvised explosive devices and had asked the Maoists to refrain from using land mines as it kills unsuspecting civilians who go into the jungles to find out roots, barks, seeds, fruits and dry wood to keep their life going but these landmines cut short their lives forever.
The Bulbul jungle on the border of Lohardaga and Latehar districts has been a witness to many a poor civilian losing life in the mines laid there by the Maoists in the recent past even.
