Monday, November 14 2005 19:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jamshedpur: Jharkhand police has been put on alert in view of the Maoist attack on Jehanabad jail and police lines, Chief Minister Arjun Munda said today (Nov 14, 2005) and demanded that the Centre come out with a 'concrete policy' to tackle the naxal menace in the country.

The naxalite menace was now a national problem and the Centre should come out with a policy to put a rein on it, he told newsmen here.

"However, it will be difficult to find a solution to it on the political front as this problem was not limited to any particular state", he said after inaugurating a new factory of next-generation heavy vehicles of Tata Motors.

Munda's demand comes on the heels of the outrageous attack on Jehanabad jail and Police lines in Bihar by the proscribed CPI(Maoists) in which 12 persons, including two policemen and a warder were killed, many incarcerated comrades and other prisoners set free and an unspecified number of men of the Ranvir Sena, an outfit of the landlords, kidnapped.

Jharkhand too faced Maoist violence on Friday when Maoists looted a large cache of arms and ammunition from the armoury of the homeguard training Centre at Giridih and killed 7 people.

Munda refused to comment on questions on whether there was intelligence failure in the Giridih incident.

The state Home Minister had said at Giridih yesterday that the Jharkhand government was contemplating a fresh ban on ultra Left outfits and would review of its surrender policy and create a separate company comprising personnel with army-style training to contain extremism in the state.