Patna, June 12: The state police headquarters has decided to set up a base camp of security forces at Bhimbandh on the Munger and Jamui borders to check influx of Maoists from neighbouring Jharkhand.

Personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Special Task Force (STF) would man the base camp.

Setting up the camp is part of the state police’s altered strategy to deal with the armed squad members of the CPI (Maoist) in Bihar. The camp at Bhimbhandh, which earlier witnessed the killing of then Munger superintendent of police K.C. Surendra Babu in 2005, would be the second such camp after Chakarbanda forest on the borders of Gaya and Aurangabad districts in January.

Director-general of police (DGP) Abhayanand said the camp would have adequate number of security personnel, both from the central police organisations and the state police. “It would be easier for the security forces to carry out operations on a regular basis in the areas considered to be influential pockets of the banned outfit. In addition, the deployment of the forces would instill a sense of confidence among the residents,” he said.

The DGP said the police changed their operational strategy in the wake of casualties of the security forces during operations in Gaya and Aurangabad last year. Seven persons, including an assistant commandant, were killed during an operation in October 2012. Another policeman lost his life in a Maoist ambush in Pachrukhia forests on the borders of Gaya and Aurangabad in September 2012, he added.

“Base camps at Lutwa and Sevra village in Gaya’s Sherghati area would prevent the Maoists from entering Bihar from Jharkhand’s Chatra and Latehar districts,” he said, adding that the entire Jharkhand border was under the strict surveillance of the state police.

Sources in the state police headquarters said the police would soon launch an intensive drive to flush out Maoists from Jamui district.

“We are trying to locate the areas from where the Maoists enter Jamui from Jharkhand. Once the villages are identified, the security forces would be deployed in adequate number for operation,” a senior officer associated with anti-Naxalite operations told The Telegraph.

The officer added that two companies of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) would also be deployed in anti-Naxalite operation in Munger. “This is the first time when the SSB personnel are being drafted for anti-Naxalite drive,” the officer said, adding that two battalions of the SSB have been allotted to Bihar for their use in operations against Maoists.