Dumka, May 4: Additional director-general of police Gouri Shanker Rath conducted a rehearsal of combing operation of Naxalites with the policemen of six districts of the Santhal Pargana here today.

After the police headquarter and the intelligence department recently sniffed the presence of Maoists in the region which was so far considered as a "peace zone" in the state, Rath today chalked out different strategies along with the police chiefs of Dumka, Deoghar, Jamtara, Pakur, Sahebganj and Godda.

Besides the district police superintendents, all officers to the rank of deputy superintendent, inspectors and officers-in-charge of all the police stations in the region also participated in the meeting.

He too stimulated several anti-Naxalite measures and the state's policy for countering the Naxalite menace into the minds of Santhal Pargana cops during the closed-door meeting.

However, the contents of the meeting was not made available to the public but later talking to mediapersons, Rath said Dumka and Sundarpahari area in Godda district had been marked as the new "terror" zone of Maoists.

According to him, out of 330 total police stations in the state, 167 were affected by Naxalites and among them 85 police stations were affected with rebel violence.

Rath said the outfit had started spreading its tentacles in Dumka district taking the opportunity of inaccessible topographical conditions as the district shares borders with Bihar and Bengal.

The Telegraph