The West Bengal police on Tuesday interrogated top Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy in a New Delhi jail, after obtaining permission from a local court, in connection with a criminal case registered at West Midnapore district in 2008.Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had a narrow escape on November 2, 2008, when a landmine exploded within minutes of their convoy passing through Baroa near Salboni in Midnapore.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday alleged that there was a political conspiracy behind the Gyaneshwari Express disaster in West Midnapore and said the Centre has agreed for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the mishap. "From the railways, we have requested the Union home ministry for a CBI investigation into the incident, since it was in Jangalmahal where the joint operation (against Maoists) is on."
Nearly 500 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force and the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action, engaged in anti-Maoist operations in West Midnapore district, were the first to reach the site where a Maharashtra-bound express train derailed on Friday morning, killing 68 passengers.A CRPF spokesman told reporters that personnel of the 165 CRPF battalion posted at Maoist-affected Manikpara, close to the accident spot, arrived at 2 am and were the first rescuers.
The accident site in West Midnapore, West Bengal, has been strewn with mutilated bodies and belongings of passengers of the ill-fated Gyaneshwari Express.
In the wake of the Maoist attack on a Mumbai-bound train in West Midnapore district, the South Eastern Railway cancelled the Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi Express and Howrah-Jamshedpur Ispat Express on Friday.
Four jawans have been killed after Naxals blew up a vehicle carrying Central Reserve Police Force troopers in West Midnapore, West Bengal, on Wednesday.
The West Bengal government said on Friday that the police and intelligence agencies had got information about Maoist leader Kishenji hiding in the state and that he was likely to be arrested soon.
Nirmal Mahato, the CPM branch committee secretary of Amdanga, was shot dead by Maoists, who claimed he was killed for exploiting poor villagers, police said. The Maoists then blocked the Amdanga-Lalgarh road felling boulders preventing security forces from raiding the area.
The government has sanctioned Rs 95.61 crore to Maoist-affected states, including West Bengal, under the 'Special Assistance Scheme' to carry out speedy development works. The amount has been sanctioned to Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities leader Uma Kanta Mahto was killed in an encounter with joint security forces in West Midnapore district of West Bengal on Friday, said the police.Mahto was wanted in connection with the Gyaneshwari train disaster case that had claimed 148 lives on May 29 this year. The government had suspected that Maoists had planned the derailment of the passenger train.
Maoists on Thursday called for a 48-hour bandh in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa from April 26 in support of their demand for producing four of their arrested cadre before court. Chandrasekhar, Rajen, Krishna and Rajesh were arrested by security forces between April 14 and April 15 from different areas in Jhargram subdivision of West Midnapore district, but have not been produced in court, a Maoist leader claimed.
Maoists shot dead two Trinamool Congress workers at Bandhghora village near Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, the police said on Saturday. The Left-wing extremists chopped the limbs of Paban Mahato, 38, and Kaushik Dutta, 35, and fired 11 bullets at them from a close range on Friday, they said. They were casual workers in the electricity department. Police said Maoist posters were recovered from the spot claiming that Dutta and Mahato were police informers.
On his first visit to the heart of Naxal territory in West Bengal, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram ruled out the involvement of the military in anti-Maoist operations and made a fresh offer of dialogue with the left-wing extremists.
Launching their final offensive to reclaim the areas held by the Maoists in West Midnapore district, security forces started marching towards Kantapahari -- the last stronghold of the Maoists -- from both Lalgarh and Ramgarh on Monday.The forces, comprising 1600 men of the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, State Armed Police and India Reserve Battalion, set out at approximately 7 am from Lalgarh and Ramgarh in a pincer movement.
A policeman was on Tuesday gunned down by Maoists in Jharkhand's Sareikela-Kharsawan district as their 48-hour shutdown entered the second day.
Ending uncertainty and suspense, the Maoists have released Atindranath Dutta, the police officer, whom they abducted last week.
All police stations and Central Reserve Police Force camps in the three Maoist-hit districts of West Bengal have been put on high alert and Railway Protection Force has been asked to keep vigil on trains and tracks ahead of Wednesday's 48-hour Bharat bandh called by ultras.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari escaped unhurt today when a cloth got stuck in the rotor blades of his helicopter while landing here.
Top Maoist leader Kishenji claimed on Tuesday that his oufit was not involved in the May 28 Jnaneswari Express disaster in West Midnapore district that claimed 148 lives.
Elusive tribal leader Chhatradhar Mahato, spearheading an agitation since November last year against alleged police atrocities at Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, was arrested on Saturday.
Shreya Sen, a survivor of the horrific Gyneshwari train mishap, has not let that traumatic incident rob her of her passion for life or her charming smile, discovers Sanchari Bhattacharya.
Not keen to take any chances in the wake of the derailment of the Gyaneshwari Express on Friday, the railway ministry has decided to suspend the running of passenger trains for seven hours in the night in Naxal-affected areas, during the Black Week declared by the Left-wing extremists. The decision came after Maoists derailed the Howrah-Kurla Gyaneshwari Express in West Midnapore district of West Bengal in the wee hours of Friday, killing more than 100 people.
The derailment of the Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express in West Midnapore district, which left at least 75 passengers dead on Friday, threw up a number of contradictions on what caused the mishap. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, who flew to the accident spot in a helicopter, said the derailment was caused by a bomb blast and indicated that Maoists were behind it.
West Bengal Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh said the police had found Pandrol clips (which tie the tracks) open along a 50-metre stretch at the accident spot and the blast theory was yet to be confirmed.
Anxious relatives of passengers in the Howrah-Mumbai Express, which was targeted by Maoists on Friday morning, are desperately calling up helpline numbers in Mumbai to know the status of their near and dear ones.Maoists blasted rail tracks in West Midnapore district in West Bengal in the wee hours of Friday, derailing 13 coaches of the Mumbai-bound Howrah-Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express. Five coaches were hit by a goods train, leaving at least 65 dead.
Suspected Maoists triggered a landmine blast on a railway track near Jhargram in West Midnapore district on Wednesday, injuring two drivers of a goods train and leaving the engine of the freight train damaged.
Maoists killed a man in West Bengal and set off a blast partially damaging tracks in Bihar on the second day of their two-day bandh in six states.
Four Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters and a party worker were shot dead by Maoists on Friday after they suspected them to be police informers and their bodies dumped on the highway at West Midnapore and Purulia districts, the police said.
India will get its first transgender college principal on June 9 when Manabi Bandopadhyay takes charge of Krishnagar Women's College in West Bengal's Nadia district.
Maoists in West Bengal have apparently been shifting base from their strongholds in Lalgarh and Belpahari in the last two months, with killings and violence increasingly taking place in Jhargram subdivision, 40 km away in restive West Midnapore district. Police sources attribute this to the strong security presence in Belpahari and Lalgarh.There are seven camps of the joint security forces in Lalgarh and nine in Belpahari while there are only three camps in Jhargram.
The anti-Maoist joint operations by Central forces and police at restive Lalgarh in West Midnapore district were not a total success as no major arrest could be made or killings stopped, the West Bengal Government said on Thursday.
Noting that Maoists still have "pockets of influence" in Lalgarh, the government on Saturday said the situation in the strife-torn area in West Bengal was not stable but maintained that paramilitary forces cannot be deployed there indefinitely.
The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday demanded the immediate withdrawal of central forces from Lalgarh in West Midnapore district and asked the Centre to take up development programmes there."We demand immediate withdrawal of the joint security forces, who are committing atrocities on innocent villagers in the name of nabbing Maoists, and urge the Centre to take up development programmes at Lalgarh as early as possible," said a senior Trinamool Congress leader.
A demand for autonomy for three tribal-dominated districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia in West Bengal was made on Saturday by a top Maoist leader, who also justified the Gorkhaland statehood issue.
Give the adivasis honour and dignity and the pool of discontent in which the Maoists swim will dry up, writes Nitin Desai
Ahead of Home Minister P Chidambaram's visit to Naxal-hit Lalgarh area of West Midnapore district on Sunday, Maoists exploded a landmine there on Saturday, injuring a Central Reserve Police Force personnel. The landmine was planted alongside a road in Bamal area and when the CRPF jawan stepped on it, the explosive went off, said the police. Security has been beefed up in Lalgarh, where Chidambaram is expected to visit on Sunday.
Disgruntled Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Kabir Suman, who had alleged that he was unable to work for the people of his constituency because of opposition from a section of party leaders, on Friday said differences with party members had been resolved.He also demanded that he be allowed to speak in Parliament against the anti-Maoist operations by the police and central forces in West Midnapore district.
Three persons, including husband of a Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate, were killed on Monday and several others injured in violence during the second phase of panchayat elections in West Bengal where 75 per cent polling was recorded.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed on Monday that he had got specific information on the Trinamool Congress' link with the Maoists and warned the party not to join hands with it to put the Communist Party of India-Marxist in trouble.
Security forces on Saturday captured key Maoist stronghold of Ramgarh as they launched a two-pronged attack to reclaim areas in West Midnapore district under control of Left-wing ultras who offered stiff resistance by detonating landmines and opening gunfire.
