BJP hits out at Nitish Kumar for being soft on Maoists

Patna: Harping on the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) report, the BJP today hit out at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for allegedly adopting soft attitude towards the Maoists thus allowing them to spread their tentacles and intensify violent activities in the state. Due to the JD(U) government's soft attitude, the Maoists have been able to spread their tentacles and intensify violent activities to the extent that there has been 41 per cent increase in such incidents this year, former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said in a statement.[caption id="attachment_1240593" align="alignleft" width="380"] Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption] The JIC of the Central intelligence agencies has rightly pointed out in its report to the central government about spurt in the Maoists' activities in Bihar due to the soft attitude of the state government, he said. Slamming the Chief Minister for expressing ignorance about the report to mislead the people about failures of his government to deal with the Maoists' in a stern manner, Modi said that Kumar cannot deny the fact that 38 people, including 13 security personnel, have been killed in naxal attacks in Bihar this year as compared to 25 last year. Similarly, the state government cannot deny another fact that there has been just one encounter between the security forces and the Maoists this year as against 12 in 2012 and 17 in 2011, the former deputy chief minister said, adding that the security forces have been able to recover only 47 weapons from the ultras this year as against 117 last year. The Maoists have taken advantage of the soft attitude of the state government to expand their activities in 32 out of 38 districts, Modi said and expressed alarm at the fact that the ultras have carried out violent activities in as many as 18 districts till August this year. PTI