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NSG commandos to combat Maoists in Bihar
by Ajay Kumar

      Patna (Bihar): The first contingent of elite National Security Guards (NSG), which specialises in anti-terror operations, arrived here on Thursday to hunt down prisoners who had been freed by suspected Maoist rebels from a town jail in Bihar. The Maoists entered the town of Jehanabad on Sunday night in small groups, cut off power and raided the local prison in what was described one of the biggest ever attacks by the guerrillas. Officials said that two National Security Guards (NSG) teams have been sent to Bihar to capture the rebels. G.S. Kang, Bihar's Chief Secretary, said that the NSG commandos would be deployed after identifying the problem areas. "They (National Security Guards) work on specific intelligence and are like anti-terror groups who do combing operations. After identifying the problem areas, their service would be utilised for combating them," he told reporters. He, however, refused to disclose the next destination of the commandos. The Maoists killed at least two people and freed about 350 prisoners in their jailbreak on Sunday. The rebels, who were estimated to be 700 in number, killed a prison guard and a member of the Ranvir Sena, a private army of the upper caste landlords in a gunbattle with policemen. The guerrillas also abducted at least two-dozen Ranvir Sena members from the jail. The state government has suspended Sunil Kumar, the Superintendent of Police, Jehanabad in connection with the incident. Maoists, who primarily operate in eastern and southern India, say they are fighting for the rights of landless laborers and impoverished peasants. In Bihar, they often clash with the Ranvir Sena. Dozens have been killed over the past decade. The attack took place on a day when police had been deployed in other parts of Bihar for elections to the state legislature in a month-long process, which ends this weekend. The Maoists had stepped up their attacks in recent months. Last week, about 300 Maoists stormed a training center for auxiliary policemen, killed five cadets in neighboring Jharkhand state. The home ministry has estimated that there are around about 9,300 armed Maoist rebels in the country, and say that they have links with Maoist insurgents in Nepal.