Following the landmine blast triggered by Naxals which killed 6 police personnel in Bihar's Sheohar district on Friday, the police have stepped up security arrangements as six districts go to the polls in the second phase of the Bihar Assembly elections on Sunday.
The death of the jeep driver, a home guard was confirmed by the police late on Friday, taking the toll to six. Another Special Auxiliary Police jawan, who was injured in the blast, is said to be in a stable condition and is undergoing treatment at the SKM College Hospital in Muzaffarpur.
A total of 98.49 lakh voters will cast their votes in the six districts of Sheohar, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi and parts of East Champaran in this phase.
While asserting that voters would not be deterred by the incident, DGP Neelmani told journalists that Central force deployment at booths in Sheohar would be 96 per cent, while it would be 100 per cent in critical and Naxal-afflicted polling stations in the remaining districts.
“Voters will not be affected in the least. As there are six districts in this phase as compared to eight in the first round, saturation of Central forces will be more,” Mr. Neelmani said, adding that thorough border-checking and sealing activities were already under way.
Stating that Friday's assailants would be nabbed soon, Mr. Neelmani said that the police could launch an operation on a massive scale if they so chose, but did not do so as they believed in targeted investigations out of civilian concerns.
“The group which carried out the explosion was small. There would have been an ambush had it been a larger band,” he said.
Expecting a robust voter turnout in the second phase as well, the DGP said the number of civilian deaths had come down in the last few years and the rebels were now targeting security forces as a large number of their area commanders had been arrested by the police during the past months.
The blast occurred around 10 p.m. when the jeep carrying the police personnel reached Chitkahi bridge near the Shyampur Bhitta station.
The rebels had mined the bridge after tracking down the movements of the police that day, Mr. Neelmani said, stating that the landmine was made out of crude, local material. While normally security personnel avoided movement at night, Friday was an exception as the jeeps were “travelling under certain compulsions.”
Apart from Samastipur, all the other districts in this phase are in some measure plagued by the Naxal menace. According to reports, the extremists had earlier distributed pamphlets and stuck posters urging the residents of Muzaffarpur and Sheohar districts to boycott elections.
