A postmortem of three recent Maoist attacks — Gadchiroli (in Maharastra), Sankrail and Gidhni (in the Jamboni police station area) in West Midnapore — has highlighted a worrying trend for authorities: all the three guerrilla-type attacks were led by women cadres.

In the latest, a Maoist attack in Gidhni left four jawans of the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) dead on Sunday.

The new strategy of the CPI (Maoists) prefers women at the forefront of their operations because they (women) are not easily marked by the police and intelligence agencies, said a highly-placed officer with the Bengal Police.

“According to available information and those gathered from eyewitness accounts, around 10 to 15 Maoists attacked the patrolling party of the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR). We have specific inputs that a squad from

Jharkhand carried out the operation and it was led by a woman commando,” said Murlidhar, Additional Superintendent of Police (Operations), Jhargram.

Murlidhar added: “Eyewitnesses told us the bullets were fired by two women members of the squad who were in the age group of 20 to 30 years.”

It is learnt that the squad involved in the Gidhni attack is called the Gorabandha Squad.

“The squad is led by woman commando Basanti. Basanti is the squad name of the woman leader and she is a resident of Jharkhand. The squad operates in the West Bengal-Jharkhand border areas, Jambani block and other areas bordering West Midnapore and Jharkhand,” said an officer.

According to a senior police officer with the Jharkhand Special Branch, Basanti is a prominent name among the Maoist squads there and is also wanted in several cases.

... contd.