Police to monitor agitations in state
All agitations in the state are under scanner for their possible link with naxalites, senior state police officials have revealed. Shailendra Mohan reports.
All agitations in the state are under scanner for their possible link with naxalites, senior state police officials have revealed.
According to sources in the state police headquarters, the analyses of some of the agitations in the recent past have shown that the crowd was either being led by naxalites or was being instigated against the authorities by them.
"There are instances such as the burning of coaches of Deccan Queen and a commuter train at Ulhasnagar in 2006 and the protests that we saw in Raigad against a proposed Special Economic Zone in 2008. The analyses that we carried out after these protests showed that there was clear involvement of elements that have been associated with naxalites," a senior police officer told Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to media.
In 2006, the trains had been burnt following news of desecration of a statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar in Kanpur.
"It, however, happened about a month after the killing of a dalit family in Khairlanji. The news of desecration became a trigger and the crowd went berserk," the officer said.
He added that it was after a probe into the train burnings that they figured that the protests had been led by some individuals who had instigated the crowd to attack the trains.
The senior police officer said that they also found that the same elements were involved at various levels in different protests against the state government.
"We have carried out some analyses and we are alert over such developments," said additional director general of police KP Raghuvanshi.
He, however, added that there is no such intelligence on it.
Another state police official told the Hindustan Times that the police are also keeping a watch on the protests at Jaitapur against the proposed nuclear power plant.
"Some of the faces that are leading the protests are same and we know about their leanings so we are not taking any chances," he added.
He said that such issues offer naxalites an opportunity to create "just the kind of environment" that they want to prevail.
"They instigate people by telling them that the state has wronged them and get them to organize protests against the authorities," the officer explained. Then when the government cracks down on the protests, the naxalites tell the people that they need to take up arms against the state, thus leading to a vicious cycle.
"We want to keep an eye on such protests as it would help us contain the situation and nip the problem in its bud," the officer added.