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Speaking to The Indian Express from Delhi, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said: “If a police camp becomes a picnic spot, such a thing is bound to happen.”
This was a reference to the camp being right in the middle of a bustling market with little checks on entry and exit.
State Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen admitted that the attack suggested an “intelligence failure” while DGP Bhupinder Singh said that, clearly, there were “lapses.”
A visit to the camp, which was wound up this evening, shows:
* The camp, near state highway number 9, is housed in the premises of the Silda primary health centre.
* It has a five-foot wall on three sides ringed by a crowded market.
* This peculiar location is because the camp was set up not to fight Maoists but to provide protection to local CPM men. The Silda CPM Local Committee office is just a stone’s throw away. In 2005, local CPM leader Anil Mahato was killed by Maoists who also killed his guard, a police constable. Then, in 2008, another prominent local Left leader, Mangal Soren, was murdered. “After these two murders, we requested the police to set up a camp and the EFR camp was set up in January 2009,” said Amiya Sengupta, CPM Zonal Committee Secretary.
* There’s a public toilet inside the camp used by visitors to the primary health centre.
* There were no sentries behind the bunkers or at vantage points including the roof when the attack occurred.
* There were no watchtowers, mandatory for any camp.
* Makeshift shops dot the outside perimeter of the camp.
* A lone sentry at the front gate retaliated but was shot in the back while he was trying to run away.
If the camp was a textbook example of apathy, today was a story of callousness. The charred bodies of the 24 EFR personnel were removed only after 9 am — a full 16 hours after they had been killed.
No police team dared to launch a rescue operation soon after news of the attack broke in this crowded town last evening. Eyewitnesses said many wounded personnel writhed in pain and bled to death.
Officials said that according to preliminary investigation, the attack was launched by Maoist squads from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand with Lalgarh units providing “local support.” Eyewitnesses confirmed at least three women in the assault team. The Maoist squad split while retreating and at least one team is believed to have moved towards Jharkhand.
The Maoists abandoned several of the vehicles they had used and set them on fire — some of these were seen at Pirohati, close to the Jharkhand border.
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Total ineptitude, negligence & too casual approach by state government towards fight against maoist menace cost the lives of police personnels at SILDA. The aim of setting the camp at silda was to protect and as well as boost the moral of CPM cadres, who for the decades exploiting the local tribes, deprived them of basic or minimum requirements for living and at the same time these CPM cadres transformed themselves like feudal landlords. any discontent voice silenced ruthlessly by them with the help of administrative machineries. this is the main reason maoists could become savior of these tribal poor people. These security personnels paid the price with their lives for the sin of CPM & and administration.