PLFI grows beyond Jharkhand and so does the fear factor
MESSAGE In his first interview to a national paper, PLFI chief Dinesh Gope claims his outfit is earning acceptance
JHARKHAND-ODISHA BORDER: Coming face to face with Dinesh Gope, chief of the People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) that has built up a reputation for ruthlessness, is no easy task.
Gope, a 33-year-old former soldier, is always on the move as he is under the surveillance of intelligence agencies and security forces. After more than two months of efforts, Hindustan Times visited a PLFI camp inside forests along the Jharkhand-Odisha border on Saturday and interacted with Gope, the first time any national newspaper has met him.
The journey began on Saturday from Ranchi and it took almost four hours to a school run by the PLFI in an area surrounded by hills, where we waited for 20 minutes before Gope and his men appeared on four motorcycles.
The interview had just begun when his sharp eyes spotted two SUVs speeding towards us. Within seconds his guards raised an alert – “Saheb force hai (Sir, it’s the security forces)” – and Gope apologised and left.
Two hours later, we were asked by Gope to reach a temple built by the PLFI deeper inside the forests. There was virtually no road as we drove through fields and wastelands, crossed hills and rivulets to reach the destination.
It was getting dark when we arrived. After we surrendered our phones, the interview began. After a lot of convincing, Gope agreed to be photographed with his men, albeit with their faces covered.
Long before the Islamic State
became known for its brutal executions, the PLFI, which has its origins in Jharkhand, was allegedly killing people by slitting throats, beheading, severing limbs and even chopping them into pieces.
Today, the PLFI has spread to Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and West Bengal and the mere mention of its name spells fear.
Despite two operations launched by police, PLFI leaders continue to hold their own and move around freely in villages and even towns. Gope claimed the group’s “philanthropic work” is making it popular among tribespeople and poor.
He said PLFI was talking to tea garden labourers to extend its base to Assam after having spread to Uttarakhand and Haryana. He claimed his cadres were in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, China and Nepal for talks with “like-minded organisations”.
Rebels leaders claimed a major chunk of “levy” collected from contractors, businessmen and mine owners – the amount is estimated to run into crores – goes into a slew rifles, carbines, grenade launchers and mortars.
The armed wing has area, zonal, regional commanders and head of state operations. They all report to Gope.
In Odisha, PLFI is active in Sundergarh and Rourkela districts, Jashpur in Chhattisgarh and penetrated into tribal belts of West Bengal.
of “welfare programmes”.
The PLFI, a splinter group of the CPI-Maoist, claimed it is running 16 residential schools in Jharkhand – former chief secretary Sajal Chakraverty raided one school at Beriya in Khunti district last year – and one school each in Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
Hindustan Times visited one residential school where 70 tribal boys and girls were living and getting free education. The school follows the CBSE curriculum and has tables and benches, round-theclock power, water supply, beds for students and faculty, separate toilets for boys and girls, a TV set and sufficient food in its kitchen.
In a state where only 47.1% of primary and middle schools have usable toilets, only 19.8% of schools in rural areas have drinking water and 55. 7% of Class I students cannot recognise the English alphabet, the PLFI-run school appeared ideal.
The PLFI also claimed it runs several health clinics in remote areas, where the government’s healthcare initiatives haven’t reached so far. The rebels claimed they had built several places of worship, mostly temples and churches.
But police and state government rubbished his claims.“We know of only two schools they have built and these are their pseudo fronts to hold meetings,” said DIG Arun Kumar.
Of these two, he said, the government took over a school in Beriya village that was raided by security forces last year.
Chakraverty said, “Mercilessly killing people and by exhibiting their severed limbs as trophies to spread fear they are doing no service to humanity. Unfortunately, the PLFI takes pleasure in such acts.”
But Gope pointed to what he said was the group’s expanding appeal among people as proof of their conduct. The PLFI has scores of professionals and even church pastors in its ranks. They picked up the gun to fight the government’s “corrupt system” and create a socialist society where everyone will be equal, he claimed.
“If we were a terror group,” Gope said, “we would not have been growing so fast and earning the acceptance of all sections of society.”