Cops in naxal-run ‘jails’

New Delhi
Oct. 7: A day after the beheading of a police inspector in Jharkhand, the Maoists have claimed to have imprisoned a number of police personnel in makeshift “jails” in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region.
The claim follows massive operations launched by the security forces to flush out the Maoists, who have moved from smaller guerrilla attacks to higher and more intensive attacks involving larger forces in Chhattisgarh.
Speaking to this newspaper from Lalgarh, Koteswar Rao, alias Kishenji, a CPI (Maoist) politburo and central committee member, said: “In Bastar we have built makeshift jails and have imprisoned some police intelligence officers. Their punishment will be decided after trials by the Revolutionary People’s Committee.”
Kishenji, who shifted base from Chhattisgarh and now runs the outfit’s operations in Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal, also claimed the Maoists have over the last few years killed at least 50 policemen, mainly of the lower ranks, “who ventured into our areas to gather information”.
He, however, refused to comment on the beheading of the police officer in Jharkhand, claiming that he was “yet to get a report from the state unit of the Maoists”.
Kishenji revealed that “vacant houses and captured school buildings in our strongholds have been transformed into makeshift jails”, adding, “We have been adopting this measure for some years now.”
These Maoist “jails” are set up in villages and surrounding areas completely controlled by Maoists.
He refused to reveal the exact number of policemen imprisoned in these “jails” awaiting “trial” by kangaroo courts.
However, he maintained that these “jails” exist only in Bastar region and that the Maoists have not yet been able to set them up in other states, like Orissa and Jharkhand.
“Despite our strongholds, the Revolutionary People’s Committee has not emerged properly. We still need to take the movement forward,” he said.

Source::DC