As the dust settles on the October 20 Maoist attack on Sankrail police station and the subsequent abduction drama, preliminary investigation into the incident points out that it was a well-planned operation carried out by three separate teams of the ultras following months of recce and practice.

Another disturbing finding is that the two girls, who fired at the police station and a nearby bank, were not professionals but fresh recruits. “The way they fired in the bank and on the two unarmed police officers indicate the girls were freshers and may be this was their first time they killed,” a senior officer, who is part of the investigating team, told The Indian Express.

According to police sources, the girl who shot the two officers dead at the Sankrail police station was a local. “She and at least two other girls who took part in the attack had received extensive training outside Bengal,” the officer added.

To carry out the attack, three armed Maoist squad teams — one from Jharkhand (Gurubanda squad), one from Belpahari and one from Lalgarh — were merged and given intensive training for the past two months. The average age of the 40-member squad was between 20 and 22 years and some were even under 20, said a member of the probe team, which is working closely with the police teams of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Even as the Maoists carried out planning and recce of Sankrail for the past three months, that included monitoring the security system of the police station and the bank and following the movement of Officer-in-Charge Atindranath Dutta — was was later abducted — the police received no specific intelligence input. “We just had a general warning that the Maoists are going to target weaker sections of the force, including police stations,” said a senior police officer posted in Lalgarh. The Maoists had roped in an expert for conducting such attacks — probably a member of the CPI (Maoists) military commission — from outside Bengal who made the detailed plan and spent about three months in the Lalgarh and Jhargram areas, said a senior police officer. The attack was masterminded by Kishenji, who is the chief of the eastern regional bureau of the CPI (Maoists), in close consultation with the outfit’s Bengal leader Batasha and member of military commission Aakash. The security forces deployed in Lalgarh and the adjoining areas, meanwhile, are preparing for an all-out assault on the Maoists. They have been told to target at least 20 Maoists.