Visitors take a wash at Bangali Bund — a popular tourist spot in Naxalite-hit Lakhisarai district. Picture by Amit Kumar

New Year revellers are steering clear of popular tourist destinations in Munger, Banka, Lakhisarai and Jamui districts owing to the perceptible threat of Maoists. The intelligence department, too, has warned of possible rebel strikes in those areas.

Sanjeet Kumar, a chartered accountant practising at Bhagalpur, has refused to take his family members to any nearby picturesque picnic spot in Munger, Banka, Lakhisarai or Jamui district on New Year’s Day. Instead, Kumar is willing to take them to either Massanjore dam, a tourist spot in Jharkhand’s Dumka district, or Tarapith, a place with religious significance in Bengal.

Kumar’s reason for turning down his family’s request: fear of Maoists at tourist spots in eastern Bihar districts.

“Such scenic places are in the Red corridor. Rebels have converted them into Red bastions. So we avoid such places,” he said.

Like Kumar, several New Year revellers have decided to skip the famous picnic spots because of Red terror.

Pradeep Jain, a medicine wholeseller at Bhagalpur, said he has been wanting to visit Lachuar, the birthplace of Mahavir under Jamui’s Sikendra block but for the fear of rebels he does not dare to go there. “My family members wanted to visit Lachuar on January 1 but I strictly forebade them to do so,” Jain said.

Dozens of picnic spots surrounded by picturesque mountains and valleys with deep green forest cover in Banka, Munger, Jamui and Lakhisarai districts were the best destinations for tourists and the New Year revellers for years but rising Naxalite menace over the past decade has compelled people to avoid such places. “Once tourists used to flock to Bhimbandh, famous for its hot water springs, and Khragpur every winter but after rebels ambushed former Munger superintendent of police K.C. Surendra Babu and five bodyguards in January, 2006, not only people but police forces also started avoiding Bhimbandh,” said Abdesh Kumar, a Munger resident.

The intelligence department has alerted the district police about a possible ambush threat by rebels on January 1. “Rebels might target police on the pattern of the ambush on a police patrol party at Rishikund, a popular tourist spot in Munger, on January 1, 2008, in which four Special Auxiliary Force personnel were killed,” a senior intelligence officer said on the condition of anonymity.

Sources said special security arrangements have been made at picnic spots or places of religious importance on January 1 but were silent on policing at places with inaccessible topography.

A senior police officer at Munger said special security arrangements would be made. “We have asked our personnel not to go near picnic spots in isolated places,” said the officer.

Bhagalpur range inspector-general of police Jitendar Kumar, however, said additional security personnel would be deployed at all tourist spots.