MF AHMAD
Daltonganj, Sept 6: After the assault by the security forces at the CPI Maoists on the infamous Burha Pahar on Monday where many essentials such as rice sacks, medicines and other things were recovered from the bunker, it seems to be a final assault by the security forces.
Over a couple of decades, the inter state Jharkhand-Chhatisgarh Burha Pahar had created around itself an image of its invincibility, impenetration and a forbidden territory which the security forces have battered beneath their boots, sources said.
Moreover, the ‘fall’ of the Burha Pahar looks imminent and when it does fall it will be a bad epitaph for the Maoists who ran their writ from here over a very long period of time.
The topography of the Burha Pahar gave more teeth to the Maoists than their own strategic capability. Pahar’s being interstate was a shot in the arms of the Maoists. The presence of the wild life of the tiger reserve and two rain fed rivers the Koyal and the Burha Nadi also helped the Maoists perching atop the Burha Pahar.
Sources reminded that Sarju in Latehar district was once upon a time the capital of the Maoists and it was often compared with Bataclova of Sri Lanka during the peak days of the LTTE there in Sri Lanka.
However, security forces liberated Sarju by forcing maoists to go for new pasture and the Burha Pahar became their new address of terror which is now being rocked by the security forces with precision of assault and invasion.
A police officer requesting for anonymity said it is fatuous to assume that Maoists are written off. Maoists are visibly invisible and this should not be ever forgotten. Just one IED blast by them and then our security forces be on trail for them.
However, the police officer added that the myth of the Burha Pahar is shattered and along with them the maoists too.
Sources said that the anti-naxal operation codified as Double Bull (it was in the jungles of Bulbul on the border of Lohardaga and Latehar) launched months ago was a precursor to the disintegration of the Maoists in the Koyal Sankh zone. The operation forced the dreaded Ravinder Ganjhu to save his life and ammunition first than to keep his flock together.
The task to control Burha Pahar is too arduous. There are numerous challenges apart from the Maoists said Latehar SP Anjani Anjan. He said security forces have utmost regard for the lives of the civilians, women and children and when they are spotted around the security forces act in a very restrained way.
Speaking to lagatar24.com today, Latehar SP Anjani Anjan said because of the structure of the Burha Pahar there is a great vulnerability and proneness to lightning.
She said “Asmani Bijlee is the most dreadful thing of all here in this Burha Pahar. We know it well. We were here. We dread lightning. There are episodes of it. We are to do all to save us from lightning.”
When it is not lightning it is the exchange of fire that looms large and only on Monday our security forces had two rounds of exchange of fire with the Maoists, added Anjani Anjan.
It is CoBRA, Jharkhand Jaguar and district police of Latehar and Garhwa which in a well co ordinated manner is out for ‘Fateh Burha Pahar’.
Sources said the union ministry has set up JTF (joint task force) and is monitoring the endeavours of the security forces to displace the Maoists.
Moreover, they added that the displaced Maoists will be too desperate to find out any safe enclosure for them but no police officer is any ready to speak about where Maoists will go from here. One other police officer said they will not vanish into thin air. Their footsteps will be on earth and that has to be counted and neutralised by the security forces.
Sources added that top brasses of the security forces like IG Jharkhand Sector Amit Kumar and others took stock of the ongoing operation of the Burha Pahar on Monday.
They further added that even the maoists have a choice to learn and speak English or it may be for their children as among the motley of recovery security forces have laid hands on two such books where the title of the one book is ‘English Bolna Seekheyn’ and the title of the other book is ‘English Error, Mistake and Blunder were found along with sheets. raw food grains, medicines hair oil etc.
