The Naxalite movement has three phases: `induction,' `armed struggle' and then `the fight for liberation.' The Bhumi Sena is now in the induction phase, and the violence triggered by it may soon snowball into an armed movement in the contiguous area, police suspect.

Last month, a policeman attached to the Thane rural police was beaten up by residents of Kabada village near Kasa on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway. The constable, whose nose was fractured in the attack, had gone to the village to rescue a cloth merchant who had been abducted by the villagers andwhose goods had been looted. The cop was finally rescued after police reinforcements were sent to the village, and the cloth merchant was also lucky to escape the wrath of the villagers.

Investigations have revealed that the villagers, most of whom are members of the Bhumi Sena, are part of a separatist movement called Hamara Gaon Hamara Rajya (Our Village, Our Rule). They resent the involvement of the police in village matters, a senior officer said.

Another case in point is the recent murder of 62-year-old Kalah Pege, a resident of Kondan village in Talasari taluka. He was strangled to death by the Bhumi Sainiks and his body hung from a tree. Later, the body was removed and cremated without informing the authorities, all for the ``cause'' of ``self-rule.''

The rural police registered a complaint of murder on July 22, and a manhunt has been launched to arrest the three suspects named in the case, a police officer said.

The two incidents have taken place in the wake of the seizure of someincriminating documents about the Naxalite movement from a resident of Peth taluka in neighbouring Nashik district in June this year. Incidentally, the two disticts are connected by corridoors in the thick forests.

According to the superintendent of police (Thane rural) Param Bir Singh, though the incidents are isolated, there are strong reasons to suspect that Bhumi Sena activists could be acting as a front for the Naxalite movement in the state, which is resurfacing after a gap of two years. The sequence of events suggests the activists are trying to establish ``self-rule'' in some villages, Singh added.

According to police records, the movement is gradually gaining ground in 12 villages. Prominent among them are Manor, Saphala, Boisar, Palghar and Jawahar taluka in Thane district.

The reasons why the separatist movement is gaining ground in Thane district are not far to see. More than 50 percent of the land in the district is under forest cover, and there are few opportunities for earning alivelihood. In the absence of regular Employment Guarantee Schemes (EGS), the poverty-stricken population in the forest belts is exposed to malnutrition. Exploitation of tribals is widespread, and cases of bonded labour not very uncommon. Plus, on an average, 120-odd infants succumb to gastro-enteritis every year due to the lack of potable water in the villages.

Already, there have been armed clashes between the CPM and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) activists at Talasari in Thane district. The rural police had to resort to firing to stop armed battles in 1997, confirmed police.