A Musabani village — calm but uneasy

Jamshedpur, May 30: The CPI(Maoist) today threw down the gauntlet to its sworn enemy, the Nagarik Suraksha Samiti (NSS), in the latter’s Musabani fortress.

They put up posters at Dangardih, Ghagra and Nimdih hamlets of Musabani in East Singhbhum’s Ghatshila sub-division, triggering panic among villagers.

The posters reiterated long-standing Maoist demands such as stalling of Operation Greenhunt, ending harassment of “innocent” youths and scrapping of MoUs signed with private companies. They exhorted villagers to oppose the Potka plant of Bhushan Power and Steel.

The 15 posters in Hindi and Bengali were put up on walls of the post office and primary schools, and called upon youths to join their movement for a revolution in India.

Superintendent of police (rural) Shashi Kant Kujur confirmed that they had seized Maoists posters from three villages of Musabani block.

“Putting up posters is not new for rebels. They have done it in Ghatshila several times in the recent past.

“But what is a matter of concern is that this time they launched the campaign in villages that were free from insurgency. These Musabani villages are NSS forts,” Kujur said, adding that the posters were like a direct challenge to the anti-rebel outfit.

The rural SP said paramilitary forces had started a search operation in jungles bordering the three villages.

“A Maoist poster drive is not unprecedented, but it affects the psyche of the common man — the youth in particular — and, hence, has to be countered seriously,” Kujur said. He added that the police would intensify patrolling in the villages.

Interestingly, a majority of NSS functionaries are staying in Musabani and hold regular meetings with villagers to end Maoist influence.

The leaders, including NSS chief Shanker Hembram, shifted to Musabani abandoning their ancestral homes in Ghurabandha and Dumaria ever since Maoists began targeting them.

Hembram, however, was not available for his comments on the rebel poster campaign.