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NEW DELHI - A police officer in India's lawless eastern Bihar state is seeking divine help to control crime in a province where 16 people are killed, kidnapped or robbed every hour.
Rita Kumari, officer in charge of the Hajipur police station, 24km from the state capital, Patna, organised a special "yagna" or fire ritual.
"I performed the rituals according to the Hindu priest's advice, asking for God's blessings to change the mindset of criminals and to check the crime graph here," she said after the religious event that lasted many hours.
Police and locals continued singing hymns and dancing for hours after the formal prayers were over.
Kumari is not the only police officer to believe crime can be controlled with divine help. A division inspector from nearby Mirzzapur district recently urged locals to follow religious guidelines to control crime.
The rising crime rate in the state is one of the main worries of Nitish Kumar's Administration, which took office two years ago promising to make Bihar crime-free within three months.
Bihar is among the most caste-ridden, poorest and corrupt of Indian states where crime has turned into a business that includes murder and kidnapping.
Taking advantage of official impotence and the breakdown of state authority, private armies flourish across Bihar where, with a few hundred "soldiers" and the capacity to mobilise many more, they institute kangaroo courts in their areas of control to dispense instant justice.
These militias also increase their influence by levying local "tolls" after making deals with the corrupt policemen and politicians for which Bihar is renowned.
Private armies have also boosted the state's clandestine arms industry. In the past five years assault rifles and mines have found their way to some of the richer militias, giving them greater firepower compared with the Lee Enfield rifles still used by policemen.
Bihar's lawlessness also impinges on unusual victims - eligible bachelors walk warily at this time of the year as many are kidnapped and forcibly married to strangers during the "wedding season" from July to November.
Police admit that scores of bachelors are abducted each year in Gaya, Darbangha and Purnea districts and after being beaten senseless are married according to Hindu rites, in a custom, which, over the years, has gained tacit social approval.
Social activists said excessive dowry demands by grooms, particularly among the upwardly mobile Yadav agricultural class, forced parents to resort to such "shotgun alliances".
Low-caste Maoist revolutionaries have also banded together and declared war on their erstwhile landlord masters. Maoist cadres have multiplied because the lower castes in Bihar continue to be treated like pariahs, forced to live in ghettos.
Dalit or low caste women are often raped publicly in villages and small towns by upper caste men to keep them "in their place".
