Wednesday, November 16 2005 15:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jehanabad: As life is limping back to normal after Sunday night's naxalite onslaught that shattered the fragile calm of the last few months, a blame game has started between the state police brass and local authorities over who was responsible for the lapse that resulted in one of the largest jail attacks and mass escapes in recent memory.

A day after Bihar police chief A R Sinha denied that inadequate availability of police force in Jehanabad on the fateful night resulted in the naxalite attack, district magistrate Rana Avadhesh claimed the extent of damage could have been limited if the police headquarters had romptly acted on its own intelligence inputs and rushed reinforcements in time to the force-starved district.

"Had the police headquarters acted swiftly and rushed timely reinforcements the extent of damage done by the naxalites could have been limited considerably," Avadhesh said.

He admitted that soon after the attack on a homeguard training centre at Giridih in Jharkhand on November 11 in which seven persons were killed and 185 firearms and ammunition looted, IG (operations) R R Verma sent a wireless message to him saying a similar naxalite assault was probable in Jehanabad.

At 4.34 pm on Sunday, Verma sent a fax message apprehending attacks on Nadaul railway station, Kako police picket and police outpost at Karauna and said other installations like the police lines could also be targetted as movement by 100 odd extremists was sighted near Nadaul.

"We acted promptly and even went to these places but the police headquarters, which gave us these information, did not suitably act on its own intelligence inputs," Avadhesh said.

The district magistrate claimed that two companies of Central Para-Military Forces (CPMF) and two thirds of District Armed Police (DAP) had been shifted to other places for conduct of assembly polls and the district was facing acute shortage of force at the time of the attack.

However, state police chief A R Sinha said 40 per cent of DAP still remained in the district where there were 19 officers 240 constables, four companies of Bihar Military Police and one company of CRPF.

An additional company of special task force was rushed from neighbouring Aurangabad after intelligence reports revealed naxalite movement.

"This force strength was sufficient to meet any naxal challenge," he said. The DM said only 18 policemen, including two havaldars, were posted at the police lines at the time of the attack which was "grossly inadequate".

Claiming that the sergeant major, who was in-charge of the police lines, did not venture out, Avadhesh said the policemen present did a remarkable job in foiling the naxalite's bid to loot the armoury. "There were over 1000 rifles, including self-loading rifles, and nearly 150 Ak- 47 assault rifles and a huge quantity of ammunition and if they had fallen into the naxalites' hands attacks similar to the one on Jehanabad jail could have been witnessed at Gaya, Bhagalpur, Buxar and even Beur jail in the state capital," he said.

"Merely the district magistrate and superintendent of police could not have done much when the district was left at the mercy of god," he said.