Centre upset with Bengal for 'intel failure'

Monday's Naxalite attack on a joint forces camp in Silda, West Midnapore, has left the West Bengal government red-faced and the Union home ministry livid. At least 24 paramilitary jawans of the Eastern Frontier Rifles were killed last evening.

On Tuesday, state home secretary Ardhendu Sen said: "It is intelligence failure which caused so much damage to the security forces."

The Union home ministry has already expressed its displeasure known to the state administration. According to official sources, the ministry has made it clear that 'this sort of setbacks are bound to happen in the absence of a proper intelligence network at the ground level.'

The attack came six days after Home Minister P Chidambaram had held a meeting in Kolkata with the officials of Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal to launch an inter-state operation against Naxalites.

Silda is located in West Midnapore near Binpur and Belpahari, well within the operation area of the joint forces. The Jharkhand border is just 12 kms away. The jawans killed in the attack belonged to the Eastern Frontier Rifles.

Bhupinder Singh, director-general of police, West Bengal, on Tuesday made an assessment of the spot.

Information is also reaching the state headquarters that before attacking the camp, the Naxalites took precaution of mining the approach roads to Silda to prevent possible reinforcement by the joint forces.

According to intelligence sources, there were around 45 landmines on the approach roads to Silda, which they said, must have been laid 24 hours before the attack.

They added that the Naxalites must have mobilised around 150 people, including local villagers, to dig the roads for mines, and yet the security forces did not get a whiff of it. "This shows the lack of intelligence at the ground level," said a source.

Ever since the anti-Naxalite joint operations began in June last year, 32 jawans and 137 civilians have been killed. The state government and the Centre have jointly deployed 43 companies of police and paramilitary forces in the region to combat Naxalites.

The forces consist of Central Reserve Police Force and small detachments of Border Security Force, Indo Tibetan Border Police, and IRB.

It was also revealed after a series of attacks by the Naxalites that the jawans deployed there did not undergo even a rudimentary course on counter-insurgency strategy and tactics.

At the most, they got some weapons training. Meanwhile, hundreds of family members of the jawans gheraoed five ministers of the state government who had visited the EFR headquarters at Salua near Kharagpur on Tuesday evening.

The ministers, led by state finance minister Asim Dasgupta, went there to attend the last rites of the 24 jawans who fell to the Naxalite bullets at the Silda camp.