A stray dog on Bengal’s border with Jharkhand about 14km from the bazaar where four jawans were gunned down on Sunday. The road marks have been superimposed on the picture. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Cupan (Jamboni), Nov. 11: When the Bengal government says it wants to step up vigil along the state’s borders, it possibly means leaving checkposts to stray dogs.

That was the only form of life visible on a visit to the post through which the Maoist guerrillas had slipped into Jhar-khand after shooting dead four paramilitary personnel in Jamboni on Sunday .

Villagers saw the suspec-ted assailants zoom away on motorcycles under a bamboo post half-lowered across the metalled road.

Housewife Asha Tudu said she saw guns on their should-ers when the two-wheelers slowed down because of potholes ahead of what should have been the checkpost. “There were eight bikes and they seemed to be in a hurry,” said Asha, 24.

On the other side of the bamboo post is Jharkhand, the state Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee accuses of providing a safe haven to the guerrillas.

But the only time Asha, a resident of border village Cupan, has seen police at the checkpost set up with the promise of round-the-clock vigil is when it was built, after the security forces moved into Lalgarh amid fanfare in June.

“About 50 policemen were there that day. And that was it,” the woman said.

The inspector in charge of Jamboni police station threw up his hands in a gesture of helplessness. He said it was impossible to man such border posts with the strength his station had.

“It is true that I’m responsible for manning it. But I have only 36 policemen at the police station and I have to take care of 326.5sqkm covering 338 villages under 10 gram panchayats. How can I deploy my men at the border post?” Lokeman Hussain asked.

A senior West Midnapore police officer appeared to reject the officer’s excuse. “The local police station should have deployed at least two personnel there round the clock. Had its officers done that, the Maoists guerrillas could not have come on motorcycles, killed four EFR personnel and left so easily.”

Policing in the neighbouring state is equally lax. The residents of Dumuria, in Jharkhand, said the police were a rare sight in the area.

“There is hardly any patrolling during the day. After sunset, I can assure you there is nothing at all,” said Manoj Jana, a farmhand in his 30s.

“We live at their (Maoists’) mercy. Now it appears that the Maoists are our protectors, not the police,” he added.

The villagers here call the guerrillas Bonparty (jungle party).

At the Porihati bazaar near the border, Jana said they saw the Bonparty often. “They come here to collect biscuit packets, medicines, vegetables and mustard oil. We know all this, but the police don’t.”

The police admit that their intelligence network has coll-apsed. “We know they (the Maoists) come, roam freely and leave the area, but we can’t enter the villages deep inside the forests because we find ourselves outnumbered,” said a Jamboni officer.