CPN(M) - Worker #10
The Worker, #10, May 2006
News and Views: International
The Historic Jailbreak in Jehanabad, IndiaIndia, home of Naxalite movement in the 60s is again re-emerging as centre of Maoist movement with headlines being made in national daily newspapers with their increasing sphere of influence and deeper class struggle. In this context, the historic jail break in Jehanabad in Bihar indicates leap in their military offense. The setting of the plan (during the election period in Bihar), together with lightening strike and cool retreat (leaving only two comrades martyred) all these indicates meticulous planning, maturation of their ability to strike at will.
It was on November 13, 2005 (to match with the historic October uprising in Russia), at about 9:00 pm, about one thousand guerillas of the People's Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) led by the Central Military Commission and the Bihar-Jharkhand Special Area Military Commission of the CPI (Maoist) laid seize to the town of Jehanabad in Bihar for almost three hours and conducted simultaneous raids and attacks on the district jail, district court, police lines, police quarters, district armoury and police stations in town in the process of breaking the jail. Their aims were firstly to secure the release of their leaders, activists and ordinary prisoners, secondly, to capture reactionary state-sponsored Ranveer Sena leaders (who had been allowed to dictate inside the jail), thirdly, it seized hundreds of rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition. As many as 389 prisoners escaped (while some came back to the prison), they were able to free and take away Ajay Kanu and other cadres and supporters along with rifles and thousands of bullets.
It should be noted that Bihar represents one of the poorest, least developed, caste-ridden and feudal states in India and Jehanabad represents one of the most violent caste-ridden districts within Bihar. Not far from Jehanabad town is Arawal [sic], in December 1997, 61 dalits were massacred by the Ranveer Sena in Laxmanpur-Bathe village in Arwal. In 1986, again in Arwal, the police fired on an unarmed assembly killing scores of dalits. It is imperative to review Bihar through Jehanabad and India through Bihar. The punishment to the Ranveer Sena leaders is long overdue for their crime. Jehanabad politico-military campaign is an answer to the countrywide counter-revolutionary campaign of the reactionary Congress led by various parties.
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