A member of a family attacked by Maoists on the suspicion of being police informers displays a poster left behind by the rebels at their burnt house at Chando village in Gaya district on Saturday and Pictures by Suman

Patna, July 2: Frequent attacks on police informers by Maoists operating in Bihar seem to have posed stiff challenge to the state police, who are finding it difficult to protect their sources of information in the Naxalite-affected districts.

The informers, known as special police officers (SPOs) in police parlance, have, of late, become the soft target of the rebels. Instead of carrying out attacks on the security personnel, the Naxalites are now targeting their new friends — SPOs.

The attack on Karaili village under Dharhara police station in Maoist-hit Munger district on Saturday morning was aimed at teaching the SPOs a lesson. Though the main target of the Maoists —Ashok Koda survived the attack, two other SPOs, identified as Sunil Rai and Siwan Rai — were killed in fierce gunbattle.

Bihar director-general of police (DGP) Neel Mani admitted that the armed guerillas of the CPI (Maoist) were on the look out of Ashok, who had sometime back deserted the banned outfit and joined the main stream. Ashok had earlier survived the attack at Bangalwa village, he added.

The desperation of the Naxalites against the SPOs can be gauged from the fact that they fired at least 50 rounds at Ashok’s house. “The police normally carry out operation in Naxalite-affected villages in the small hours. Had the villagers got any inkling of the Maoists’ plan, the situation would have been different,” said a police officer associated with anti-Naxalite operation.

Sources in the state police headquarter said that Ashok was brutally assaulted when his wife had filed nomination papers during the recently concluded panchayat elections in the state. Ashok’s wife was later elected as village head, which did not augur well to his archrival Awadhesh Yadav, said to be a sympathiser of the Maoists.

After his dissociation from the Naxalite outfit, Ashok has been spending most of his time with the police at the nearby police picket. “He returns home from the police picket late in the evening and leaves the village early in the morning. Moreover, the residents of Karaili are up in arms against the Maoists these days,” said a police officer posted in Munger.

In June last, the Maoists held a kangaroo court in Gaya district and beat up two people with stick on the pretext of them being police informers. The Maoists alleged that both the suspects — Shyam Sundar Yadav and Vinod Yadav — were constantly disclosing vital information about the Maoists’ whereabouts and activities to the local police.

About two months ago, the Maoists killed two villagers in Jamui district, suspecting them to be police informers. They also shot a trader, Mithilesh Yadav at Balua Bazar under Runnisaidpur police station in Sitamarhi district, suspecting him to be a police informer.

Mithilesh, son of a public distribution system dealer, Gangadeo Rai, was charged with leaking information to the police about the activities of a self-proclaimed area commander, Nek Mohammad, who was arrested from Giddha village a few days ago.

The Sheohar police recently seized a number of pamphlets from Purnahia police station area where the Maoists had issued black warrants against the SPOs, also known as “friends of the police”. The pamphlets have been pasted at different places under East Champaran, Sheohar and Sitamarhi districts by the Tirhut sub-zonal committee of the CPI (Maoist), police sources said.

Sources said at least 30 persons have been killed by the Maoists in the state in the past five years on the charge of leaking information to the police and intelligence agencies.

According to the data released by the Union home ministry, a total 243 civilians have been killed in the state since 2006. While 40 persons lost their lives in Naxalite-related incidents in 2006, 45 were killed in 2007, 52 in 2008, 47 in 2009 and 39 in 2010 (up to June). A total 78 security personnel were killed in Naxalite-related violence in the state in five years. While five security personnel were killed in 2006, 22 were killed in 2007, 21 in 2008, 25 in 2009 and five (up to June) in 2010.

The information provided by the ministry of home affairs to a Munger-based advocate, Om Prakash Poddar, under the Right to Information Act.

“The statistics released by the ministry shows that the Naxalite incidents have shot up in the state in the past five years,” Poddar added.