Ranchi, Jan. 4: In an attempt to add teeth to its war against extremism, the government today gave the go-ahead for the creation of two new posts — a zonal inspector-general of police to be posted at Bokaro and a deputy inspector-general to be posted at Kolhan in West Singhbhum.

A senior official told The Telegraph that the twin proposals, drawn up by the home department, received the chief minister’s nod today. Insiders said for a zonal IG, the home department had initially suggested that the post be created either for the troubled coal district of Hazaribagh or at Bokaro, which, over the past six months, had been the epicentre of intensive raids on extremist hideouts at Jhumra Pahad.

The official said over the past decade, the rather inaccessible terrain at Jhumra Pahad, which houses around 86 villages, had been the natural home of MCC extremists with the hilly terrain providing them shelter and space for stockpiling arms. He said Jhumra Pahad was strategic because it provided safe passage to at least four districts in Jharkhand — Hazaribagh, Giridih, Dhanbad and Bokaro — and to West Bengal

For the first time in history, insiders said, on May 11 last year, the Bokaro police backed by paramilitary forces raided Jhumda Pahad busting the myth that the terrain was “impregnable” and came up with a large cache of arms, cash and other material.

The area was once again raided on December 24 last year by a joint team comprising Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh police.

It yielded a rich haul of 129 hand grenades, 5,152 pounds of ammunition in addition to a large number of sophisticated weapons.

“Intelligence reports further confirmed that Jhumra also served as the centre for transhipment of illegal arms through Puruliya in West Bengal to Assam in the Northeast as well as to the extremist outfits operating in Nepal through the Bihar border,” the official said.

A senior official said following the advice of the state director- general of police R.R.Prasad, the state government agreed to create the zonal IG’s post for Bokaro district.

Home officials said more than 7,000 fresh recruits were being despatched in batches for an intensive six-month training at Punjab. They said apart from physical fitness, the recruits were also being provided training on terrain acclimatisation as well as in the use of modern weapons.