With the message to prefer “goal over gaol”, police in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected Latehar district are encouraging the youths to pursue their dreams and not fall for the lure or coercion of extremist groups by introducing soccer as a means of instilling positivity in the youngsters.
Sources said the message of achieving goal in life is being given by police through football matches for which they offer football kits to the youngsters to play the matches and learn the joy and sorrow of victory and defeat.
Youths in cut off villages are being given a sense of competition to win in football matches being organised by the police in Latehar rather than to look at the extremists with any belief of lucrative or adventurous career, said sources.
For the goals the Latehar police are holding football tournament in memory of the slain cops who died fighting extremists.
The man behind this new game strategy to checkmate the extremists is SP Latehar Anjani Anjan who has got started football tournament in memoriam of the martyred cops.
This new man in uniform Anjani Anjan in his 50 days in office here as SP Latehar has felt the pulse of the youths in the villages where extremists’ outfits like CPI Maoists and JJMP hold sway and call the shots, said sources.
Anjan said there are Maoists and JJMP extremists operating in Latehar and they are to be contained.
“We held one football match at Nawagarh in memory of our martyred cop Sukra Oraon. It was a tremendous success in terms of the zeal of the players and the volume of the spectators,” he said.
Sources said the football match at Nawagarh was not between any renowned teams of the district or but of nondescript villages and here the footballers played their class game and this the Latehar police had aimed at.
Latehar police aim at people’s participation in games offered to them by the police.
Anjani Anjan said this district has no dearth of talent and so it is essential that energy and ability of the youths are groomed for the good of the society and for their own good before they slip into the morass of extremism.
Anjan said our sponsored football matches will be played in the village fields and we chose Nawagarh for the inaugural match for the simple reason that it is ‘far off, less heard and is bordering with Lohardaga’. He said more such matches in honour of our slain cops will be held in other parts of the district like Mahuadanr Chandwa etc.
Anjan said it is time the police should understand the public and the public should also understand the police.
“Boys play with balls in the field and our boys keep on high alert looking for any rogue in the ground. Maintenance of security is our high concern,” the SP said.
