Somewhere in Jharkhand....

In yet another gruesome operation, Maoists on Saturday triggered a landmine blast in which 13 state policemen were killed near Garhwa district’s Lalmatia village, about 250km from Ranchi, on Jharkhand’ border with Chhattisgarh. This is the second big attack since last November’s killing of Maoist ideologue and chief spokesman Kishenji in Bengal’s Jangalmahal area. Eleven security personnel were killed in a blast that targeted the cavalcade of Independent Lok Sabha MP Inder Singh Namdhari in Latehar in December. The Lalmatia blast, that hit an anti-landmine vehicle carrying the cops around 11.15am, was so powerful that the impact threw the armoured vehicle several feet into the air and it was badly mangled as it crashed back on the ground. The sound of explosion echoed as far as Bhandaria village, 4km away. As if to prove again that they had a free run of the place, Maoist guerillas kept local newsmen in captivity for two hours after the blast and even held a press conference. All the combatants involved in Saturday’s attack came without their faces covered, as they usually do during an operation. Eyewitnesses said these men, numbering 30 to 40, were all in their 20s and wore military fatigues. They said police should stop Operation Green Hunt, the multi-force operation against Naxals in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Maoists also demanded an end to what they called assassinations of “revolutionary leaders” in fake encounters. The guerillas took away all the arms and ammunition the cops were carrying.