A police vehicle was set ablaze allegedly by the stone quarrying mafia at Amaratalab village in Rohtas, around 150km west of Patna, on Thursday.

The police team deputed to conduct a special drive against illegal stone mining in the Karwandhia forest area, too, was attacked. Five cops suffered injuries and two of them have been admitted to the Sasaram Sadar Hospital. The team included divisional forest officer of Shahabad range, S. Chandrashekhar.

A section of people protesting against the raids blocked railway traffic, while another paralysed vehicular movement on the Grand Trunk Road for over five hours. The cops were outnumbered and could only watch helplessly.

Apprehending that the situation would spiral out of control, Rohtas SP Vikas Barman rushed to Amartalab with reinforcements from the district police headquarters.

Additional forces were also rushed from neighbouring police stations. “The drive against illegal mining in the district will continue. We are not going to be intimidated by those involved in illegal mining. The state government has already banned illegal stone quarrying. Action will be taken against those involved in such activities,” Barman said over the phone from Rohtas. This is the second attack on the police by illegal stone crushers in Rohtas in the past one-and-a-half years. Earlier, former Rohtas SP Manu Maharaj had a narrow escape when a group of people engaged in stone quarrying opened fire on a police team at Faizalpur village in the Karwandhia forest area in February 2012.

On Tuesday, members of Stone Crushers’ Association had gheraoed Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar at the Sasaram Collectorate seeking her intervention to revive stone crushing businesses in the Rohtas-Kaimur region.

In April, Rohtas district magistrate Sandeep Kumar R. Pudakalkatti cancelled licences of 194 stone crushing units on the state government’s directive. The DM had also announced cancellation of licences of more such units in future.