These camps were followed by more of the like at Dawath and other places which increased the public trust in the police. The plan for the Mahotsava was to spread cultural awareness and the yearning for change amongst inhabitants of Rohtas. The programme was scheduled to culminate in an event full of cultural, social, traditional, sports and other interesting components in a 2 day event on the Rohtasgarh Fort in the future. The reception and participation at the various police public meets organized for Sone Mahotsava had been very encouraging. The underlying philosophy was that with larger public participation with the police in organizing an event of such scale, the gaps between police and public should come down to a certain extent. Another aspect was to promote the Rohtas Fort as an icon of tribal magnificence in the past and to encourage its promotion as a tourist destination by the community who could take pride and also economically if the conditions were made suitable for the inflow of tourists to their most important heritage. As a Police representative I often explained that once the community would become aware about the need to create conditions for tourism on the fort, the Government was sure to assist. A plan envisaging a Ropeway to ferry tourists from the bottom to the top of the Rohtas Hill was also conceived. The experiment had thus begun in Rohtas and it was decided to carry it forward even in the face of adversities. 

The extremists had been watching the developments and change from very close quarters and were feeling threatened by the growing respect for police in poor classes. They were seeing it as a dent in their existence base, and reacted on the night of 21st/22nd January, 2009, by setting fire to 11 public trucks plying on the Dehri-Rohtas road. The project which aimed to bring about a cultural renaissance in the Sone Valley had just begun. The survival depended on the sustenance of bonds between the police and the public in the face of the continuous challenges posed by the extremists who still had a stronghold in the hilly areas of this bordering district of Bihar.