A third paces up the twostoreyed building where BMP jawans are housed while a fourth takes position behind the sandbags at the entrance. The driver runs and brings the police station's lone vehicle, a jeep, from the roadside to the "safe zone" inside the police station. Others get to the routine business of lighting kerosene lanterns and two cooks start the kitchen fire for dinner.

As the jawans wait for food, a car screeches to a halt outside the police station. The sentry at the gate shouts: "Halt... Kaun Hai" and takes position with the SLR.

Two people step out of the car and reply "Dost" (Friend). Inside, jawans waiting for dinner panic and then relax after the two people identify themselves as prominent locals and say they want to meet the officer-incharge. They leave after a few minutes of conversation. "At night we don't take chances. Anyone passing the police station is asked to halt and identify. The sentry at the gate, on the watchtowers and the rooftop are vigi lant throughout the night. With God's grace we have not faced any attack so far", says SI Thakur (40) who was posted to this police station in November last year.

His tenure here is for two years while BMP jawans get transferred every three months.

Thakur lives here alone while his wife and children reside in Muzaffarpur.

Fighting the Naxals isn't top of the mind. The Nitish Kumar government has so far not gone all out against the Naxalites, maintaining that an all-out offensive won't help solve the problem.

Kumar himself has said several times that he is concerned about development in Naxal-affected areas since lack of development is at the root of the problem.

When contacted IG (Operations) S K Bhardwaj acknowl edged that despite some improvement, police stations still have a long way to go to counter the Naxalite terror. Asked in particular about the lack of basic infrastructure at Banke Bazar police station, Bhardwaj blamed the state Home and Finance departments for delaying sanction of projects.

"These departments take a lot of time to sanction projects. But in recent times, the situation has improved and the results will soon be visible on the ground," he told The Indian Express.

Bhardwaj said the topmost item on their agenda was to fortify all police stations in the Naxal-affected regions. "Money has been shifted to the Police Building Construction Department and work will start soon.

We are also getting assistance under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) from the Centre," he said. "The new focus areas of the Naxalites are the plains of north Bihar bordering Nepal and the situation is becoming grave each day," he said.

For now, the orders are loud and clear: "protect your life first and then arms and ammunition".

Not surprising since every Naxal attack is aimed at looting arms and ammunition. "There is no night patrolling. Even during the day we don't step out in their territory without a posse of CRPF men," said Thakur. In the entire block, spread over a radius of 20 km, there are only two police stations. Police pickets set up earlier were withdrawn after Naxals began striking.

Given the lack of any infrastructure, police have adopted what they call a "practical approach": don't meddle in Naxal affairs. Local villagers say how even after reports that Naxals held "kangaroo courts," the police have refrained from carrying out raids. "How can we? They plant landmines that can blow us and we don't have the means to detect them," says a police officer. The one silver lining here is that normal law and order problems like murder, loot and abductions are almost non-existent. "In 2007, only two cases of petty robbery were lodged. In 2008 so far, two thefts and one murder have been recorded," said Thakur, adding that Naxals settle most of the disputes related to land and property and don't allow petty criminals to thrive.

So every night that passes here without an incident is attributed to God's grace.