In a prize catch, the West Bengal police on Tuesday night arrested top Maoist leader Venkateswar Reddy, the suspected mastermind of the attack that killed 24 Eastern Frontier Rifles personnel in Silda in West Midnapore district. Additional Director General of Police of the Criminal Investigation Department Raj Kanojia said Reddy, alias Telugu Dipak, was arrested from Sarshuna on the southern fringes of the city.
Virtually shielding higher officials from any blame, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said that failure, if any, was at the camp level leadership when Maoists attacked Silda camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles in which 24 personnel were killed last month.
At least 24 paramilitary jawans were killed in the biggest-ever Maoist attack in West Bengal, when ultras overran their camp at Silda in West Midnapore after setting it on fire on Monday, barely a week after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's meeting in Kolkata to draw up a joint strategy to counter them.
Fourteen jawans were feared killed when armed Maoists attacked a paramilitary force camp at Sildha in West Midnapore district on Monday evening."According to information available here, nine jawans were burnt to death and five others were shot dead. We are yet to get the detailed figure of the casualty," a source said.District Magistrate N S Nigam said at least 50 Maoists on 25 motorcycles, armed with sophisticated weapons, swooped down on the camp.
Monday's Naxalite attack on a joint forces camp in Silda, West Midnapore, has left the West Bengal government red-faced and the Union home ministry livid. At least 24 paramilitary jawans of the Eastern Frontier Rifles were killed last evening.
Three Maoists and a civilian were among those killed when the ultras attacked the Eastern Frontier Rifle camp in West Midnapore district leaving 24 jawans dead, police said on Tuesday.
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.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee admitted on Thursday that there was a definite lack of alertness on the part of the forces leading to the massacre of 24 jawans by Maoists in West Midnapore district.
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