Bhardwaj said the topmost item on their agenda was to fortify all police stations in the Naxal-affected regions. “Money has been shifted to the Police Building Construction Department and work will start soon. We are also getting assistance under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) from the Centre,” he said.

“The new focus areas of the Naxalites are the plains of north Bihar bordering Nepal and the situation is becoming grave each day,” he said.

For now, the orders are loud and clear: “protect your life first and then arms and ammunition”. Not surprising since every Naxal attack is aimed at looting arms and ammunition. “There is no night patrolling. Even during the day we don’t step out in their territory without a posse of CRPF men,” said Thakur. In the entire block, spread over a radius of 20 km, there are only two police stations. Police pickets set up earlier were withdrawn after Naxals began striking.

Given the lack of any infrastructure, police have adopted what they call a “practical approach”: don’t meddle in Naxal affairs. Local villagers say how even after reports that Naxals held “kangaroo courts,” the police have refrained from carrying out raids. “How can we? They plant landmines that can blow us and we don’t have the means to detect them,” says a police officer. The one silver lining here is that normal law and order problems like murder, loot and abductions are almost non-existent. “In 2007, only two cases of petty robbery were lodged. In 2008 so far, two thefts and one murder have been recorded,” said Thakur, adding that Naxals settle most of the disputes related to land and property and don’t allow petty criminals to thrive.

... contd.