The Intelligence Bureau has sounded an alert for a possible terror attack on the mausoleum of Sher Shah Suri at Sasaram in Rohtas district, around 150km west of Patna.
The bureau, in its report sent to the Union ministry of home affairs, highlighted the loopholes in security arrangements at the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) site, which is at present is under the surveillance of unarmed ASI personnel.
Apprehending an attack on the lines of the one at Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya, the agency stressed the need to strengthen the security around the Sher Shah site, which witnesses far less tourist footfall than Bodhgaya.
“The site should be manned either by the armed personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) or the Bihar Military Police (BMP),” the report recommended.
Ten bombs — planted by suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists — went off early morning at the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya on July 7, 2013, injuring five people, including two monks. Since then, BMP personnel have been in charge of security at the holy Buddhist site though the state government had recommended deploying the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).
Sher Shah mausoleum caretaker Neeraj Kumar Singh said he was aware of the security threat to the historical site.
“But we are helpless,” he told The Telegraph. “It’s the job of the government to ensure adequate security arrangements at the site which is under threat from the terrorists.”
Last month, Bihar Human Rights Commission had issued a notice to the local ASI officials for failing to remove illegal construction and encroachments near the mausoleum.
The commission had asked the Patna circle superintendent to appear before it with an action-taken report on February 9.
The directive came following a petition filed on behalf of Milan Upadhyay, a resident of Sasaram, who had complained to the commission that the ASI officers in Sasaram had stopped repair of his house close to the tomb and sought bribe for giving the clearance.
Since 1977, illegal buildings, including temples, have been built within the Sher Shah mausoleum premises. The tomb was declared a national heritage site under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, and the ASI took responsibility of its preservation and protection. The mausoleum was built in the memory of Sher Shah, also known as Sher Khan, who ruled from 1539 to 1545.
The famous general had wrenched the throne of India from the second Mughal emperor, Humayun.
It has also been included in a tentative list of world heritage sites.
The local residents said chief minister Nitish Kumar, during his visit around 10 years ago, had promised to develop it as a major tourist destination.
On average, around 50 people visit the tomb every day.
Former jailer threat
A former jailer of Sheohar divisional jail has apprehended a threat to his life from the notorious Santosh Jha gang.
The jailer, Ram Chandra Sah, petitioned to the director-general of police (DGP) P.K. Thakur, on Thursday seeking police protection for him and his family members.
Sah was posted as the jailer of the divisional jail when Mukesh Pathak, a sharpshooter of Santosh Jha gang, was lodged there. Mukesh's name figured in the murder of two engineers of a private road construction company in Darbhanga on December 26 last year. Mukesh and his wife Pooja were also lodged in the same jail, though in two separate prisoners' wards.
A source in the police headquarters said the role of the jailer had come under the scanner of the prisons department officials as Pooja got pregnant in judicial custody. Mukesh had escaped from judicial custody in July last year while being produced in a local court.
The matter came to the fore when Pooja, facing charges of kidnapping and extortion, was shifted to the Khudiram Bose Memorial Central Jail at Muzaffarpur from Sheohar last week.
Subsequently, inspector-general (prison directorate) Prem Singh Meena ordered a probe against the jailer.
Jha is also involved in over 40 cases of extortion, murder and kidnappings in various districts of north Bihar.
