M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Mar 20: Palamu police tapped a full-size statue of a slain cop to spread its message against extremism. The long-size statue is of a martyred cop M K Neeraj at village Bara under the Naudiha Bazar police station in Palamu.
Neeraj had died fighting the CPI Maoists in the year 2010 in the remote jungles falling under the Barwadih police station in the Latehar district.
Bara is about 70 kilometers away from Daltonganj. The bereaved family and the local residents have themselves installed the statue of their local hero Neeraj.
Quite recently, Palamu SP Chandan Kumar Sinha and the local BJP MLA Pushpa Devi unveiled the statue of Neeraj. To many, it was nothing but an unveiling ceremony of a statue. But there were hidden more subtle pointers in the unveiling.
“We took this opportunity of unveiling the statue to tell the locals there at the village Bara as to how extremism leaves scars on the family for long for no gain of any sort. The family is left to suffer silently,” the SP said.
“We told the youths there to be on their guard against any temptation or inducement offered by the extremists to join their fold. Extremism is the end of the tunnel,” he added.
Jharkhand police have been spending a huge amount of money on its campaign against extremists and landmines for a long time but this message from the statue of a martyred cop is far more meaningful and weightier and more convincing that extremism is neither an adventure nor any panacea to any ill.
Sources said the Palamu SP left no stone unturned to motivate the youths to go for lawful things to live on. He asked the youth to be up against anyone who dares the law of the land.
Naudiha Bazar police station in Palamu is in the contiguity of Bihar and CPI Maoists of Bihar keep coming in and going out from here. This place has an extremist tag.
During the Vidhan Sabha or the Lok Sabha elections, security forces here put up interventionist measures to stop any sneaking in of the Maoists from Bihar in Palamu of Jharkhand.
Sources said the extremists also laud the ‘martyrdom’ of their comrades who die fighting police or central paramilitary forces in their way by raising slogans against the state machinery.
But it is the public that knows the difference between the two martyrdom and Palamu police is trying to capitalise on the martyrdom of the cops in weaning away youths who in their any unguarded moment think to join the band of the extremists.
