THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, September 10: The anatomy of the Manatu encounter, where two young and brave policemen were martyred by the squad of the banned splinter group of Naxals, Tirtiya Sammelan Prastuti Committee (TSPC) led by Shashikant, is drifting away from the basic value of the assessment or evaluation of the encounter. It is zeroing in on the team that led the operation or on the strategic planning behind it.
The anatomy of the encounter is less clinical, more prejudiced. There is hardly any SP here in Palamu in whose tenure the Naxals have not issued a ‘statement of comfort’ of their own, believing mediapersons not to trash it. However, sincere media persons trash such statements, dubbing it as sinister intent and a move of the Naxals.
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1. The cops who got martyred were carrying pistols
Police sources said pistols are too handy a thing where the target is expected to be frisked and isolated from the gathering. Big weapons are an inthing in the long-range offensive against the Naxals but where someone is to be frisked or disintegrated from the gathering, small weapons do wonder as small weapons conceal the frisker.
The supremo of the TSPC Shashikant had been to his house on the night of Karma celebration where a crowd of locals sing and dance which offers temptation to others too to join the festivities.
It was a sheer luck that Shashikant getting hurried by incessant village dog barking, avoided joining the festivities and slipped into the maize field.
2. The police contingent was small.
In a fight against Naxals, that too at night contingent has to be ‘handy without any sagging of the coordination’. Here in the Manatu encounter, the contingent was adequate.
3. SoP was not followed
There is a plethora of interpretations of the SoP. This lexicon gained currency from a massacre of CRPF personnel at the hands of the Maoists in Chhattisgarh. What is protocol for a politician, minister etc, it’s SoP for the security forces. The usage of the SoP is so rampant and haphazard that it at times becomes a hackneyed term. The SoP talks about a company of force to be pressed into operation. Numerically, it may vary in the range of 20 to 40 combatants.
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4. TSPC is said to have issued a press release exonerating itself from killing two policemen in Manatu
It’s a very old and dubious tactic of the Naxals to issue such a deceptive press release after days of the encounter. The Naxals indulge in this malpractice for two obvious reasons. First to hog the media glare. Two to mislead and misinform the public.
Such a malicious and fake tirade against the police is to hoodwink the common man, while the fact of the matter is that Naxals lose more face and credibility than anyone else. The more the Naxals indulge in such propaganda, the more the Naxals’ image gets dented.
5. An encounter and loss of men in uniform brings in efficiency and professionalism in the line of firing
Every encounter is a lesson for both who fight, whether it is the Naxals or the police. No two sides can claim not to draw a lesson. Here too in Manatu encounter police and Naxals have learnt the way that suits them.
Efficiency and professionalism can’t be adjudged to the final count of the encounter. Every encounter is a warfare where opportunity plays a vital role. And opportunity is not created, it comes in spontaneously.
