Bihar ranked third among the ten states hit by Maoist violence last year, according to the data available on t... Read More

PATNA: Bihar ranked third among the ten states hit by Maoist violence last year, according to the data available on the Ministry of Home Affairs ( MHA ) website.

Besides Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh , Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are the other states affected by Left-wing extremism (LWE).

The MHA figures say altogether 1048 incidents of LWE violence took place in these 10 states in 2016. Bihar was third with 129 incidents. Chhattisgarh with 395 incidents was on top followed by Jharkhand (323).

The MHA records show total 402 reported incidents of LWE violence in Bihar from January 2014 to December 2016, in which 77 individuals, including security personnel, were killed. In 2014, 163 cases of violence were recorded with 32 deaths while in 2015, 17 people were killed in 110 incidents and 28 deaths were reported in 129 such cases in 2016.

Altogether 26 incidents with five deaths have been recorded between January and March 31 this year.

The state police headquarters sources said a study conducted by the MHA a couple of years back had found 35 districts, including six in Bihar, across seven states as worst hit by LWE violence. Muzaffarpur, Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada, Jamui and Banka were the worst-hit districts in Bihar. The MHA study also found Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and Maharashtra as severely affected by Maoist violence.

In Bihar, 22 security personnel have lost their lives in the LWE violence in the past three years. According to the state police headquarters date, six security personnel were killed in 2014, three in 2015 and 13 in 2016, which included 10 CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) commandos of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Aurangabad on July 19 last year.

At national level, 244 security personnel have been martyred while fighting against the Maoists in the last three years. Altogether 418 Maoists, including 22 in Bihar, have been neutralized by security personnel across the country since 2014.

Eight incidents of Maoist attack on police and arrest of 1484 extremists have been reported in Bihar since January 2014 till March this year.

According to the National Consortium for The Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) report on the basis of the data collected between year 2000 and 2014, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) ranks fifth after ISIL, Boko Haram, Taliban and al-Qaida as far as coordinated attacks are concerned, globally.