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Rediff.com  » News » Killings and talks can't go together, Mamata warns Maoists

Killings and talks can't go together, Mamata warns Maoists

Source: PTI
September 26, 2011 20:59 IST
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Giving an ultimatum, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked Maoists to choose between talks and killing, saying 'the two can't go together'.

Emphasising her government's desire to hold dialogue with the Maoists, Banerjee said she had no objection if they seek more time for talks, but if they kill innocent persons and then express a desire for talks, she would not agree.

''If you will kill and then want negotiation, the two cannot go together and you have to decide your way,'' she said in a stern message to the Maoists at a time when a team of government-appointed interlocutors are exploring avenues of holding talks.

Referring to Maoist stand on human rights violation, she said they had no right to talk about that when they kill innocent people with their heads and feet bound up with strings.

''What kind of human rights you follow when you brutally murder a person? Who has given you the right to kill? Those who are depriving mothers of their daughters and sons will have to pay the ultimate price,'' Banerjee told a rally.

The rally was organised on the occasion of the annual 'Singur Divas' to mark the launching of Singur movement by her party in 2006.

''If the fight was for ideology, I would have bowed 10 times and salute. But if the fight is for loot and killings and kidnappings and extortion and torture, it cannot be tolerated,'' she thundered.

Expressing her government's commitment to safeguard human rights, she said it was her government which has set up human rights court.

She said her government would go all out to ensure development and jobs in Naxal-hit Jangalmahal neglected by the previous government.

''Do the Maoists think themselves more powerful than the Communist Party of India-Marxist)?'' she asked alleging that the Maoists in league with the CPI-M had organised killings because it did not want the state government to continue with its development initiatives in the region.

She alleged that the NGOs were acting as the front for the Maoists and were receiving funds from abroad. ''They (the NGOs) hold meetings, take pictures and videograph them and sent them abroad via e-mail, internet, twitter and facebook to project how the Maoists organise movements for people's causes and ask for funds for them.''

''With the money, they hire goons and manufacture guns and loot the forest produce and ruin the future of students and youths," the chief minister said.

She said she had reports that some Maoists were hiding in Singur. ''They do not want development in Jangalmahal, but we are committed to do that. The previous Left Front government has not done anything.''

She said the government has taken a decision in the state cabinet meeting on Monday that 20 police training centres would be set up in Jangalmahal where 10,000 policemen would be imparted training.

"We will build colleges, bridges and upgrade 35 to 40 schools (from secondary to higher secondary)," she said adding all tribal families have been declared as BPL families.

She alleged that Maoists were taking help of the CPI-M in the killings they indulge in and also receiving arms from them.

''Maoists and CPI-M are the same,'' she reiterated. Without directly naming the Maoists, she said three of 'my' important leaders and a leader of another party had been killed.

She was referring to the founder-secretary of the Jharkhand Janamukti Morcha, Babu Bose, who was shot dead at Binpur in West Midnapore district on Sunday evening.

She warned the Maoists that Trinamool Congress cannot be cowed down by killing its workers. Though no arrest has been made, the police suspect he was killed by the Maoists.

This is the third murder in a month in this Maoist-affected area. On August 26 Trinamool worker Rabindranath Mishra was murdered and on September 20 Trinamool Congress region sabhadipati Lalmohan Mahato was killed. The police has found involvement of the Maoists in both the cases.

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