Chandigarh, April 20
The Haryana Police has launched a manhunt for Maoists active in certain parts of the state. According to informed sources, instructions were sent from the police headquarters here last week to all district police S.Ps to apprehend the Maoists active in their areas. The instructions were issued following reports that the Maoists were trying to forment trouble between various communities.

Five Maoists were arrested in Jind district a few days ago. Jind district was the first where the Maoist activities first came to notice two years ago, when they planted a bomb in a bus.

Two Maoists, Samrat Singh and Jagtar Singh, were arrested yesterday from near Bhurkalana village in Chhachhrauli block of Yamunanagar district. Literature associated with the Maoist movement and two foreign-made pistols were allegedly recovered from them. They have been arrested on charges of sedition and violation of the Arms Act. While Samrat is son of a Bihari migrant labourer settled in Haryana, Jagtar belongs to Dandru village, near Ismailabad, in Kurukshetra district. Both are in their twenties.

They are believed to be associated with the Jagruk Chhatra Morcha (JCM). However, Samrat is believed to have recently founded another organisation, Shivalik Jansangarsh Morcha. They were allegedly taking an "active" interest in a dispute between the Dalits and members of upper castes in a Yamunanagar village.

A local court today remanded them in police custody. The weapons recovered from them were believed to have been obtained from Kanpur in Uttar Pardesh. Police teams would be sent to Kanpur and in Bihar for investigations.

Sources say president of JCM, Sanjay was also with them, but he escaped when the police came to arrest them. Sanjay is wanted in a sedition case registered against him in Jind. His five colleagues have already been arrested by the Jind police for writing "objectionable" slogans on walls.

The sources say Sanjay had also talked of starting an armed revolution in India at a press conference recently.

A number of organisations, ostensibly having links with the Maoists, have come up in the state. These include Krantikari Mazdoor Kisan Union, Dalit Mukti Morcha, Shahid Bhagat Singh Mazdoor Morcha and the Akhil Bhartiya Krantikari Chhatra Morcha.

Meanwhile, activist of Akhil Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Bajrang Dal held a demonstration near Guru Nanak Khalsa College at Yamunanagar and demanded a high-level inquiry into the matter. Suman Kumar of Bajrang Dal and Ved Parkash of ABVP said the Maoists were spreading their activities in north Haryana.