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.
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.
The motorman of the Gyaneswari Express filed a complaint with the Jhargram GRP on Saturday against "unidentified miscreants" for the railway disaster in West Midnapore 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.
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.
A senior security official has claimed that the Maoists had carefully planned the detention of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express and the five-hour hostage crisis on Tuesday.
In a first such operation in West Bengal, Maoists on Tuesday raided a police station, shot dead two police officers and kidnapped the officer-in-charge in West Midnapore district, where they also looted a bank.
The Centre should call off the operations in West Midnapore district and instead engage the Central forces in unearthing illegal arms allegedly stockpiled by the Communist Party of India-Marxist in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Monday.
Five persons, including a woman, were killed and over 20 injured when villagers suspecting a house was being used by armed Communist Party of India-Marxist cadre gheraoed it and were fired upon from inside in Lalgarh area of West Midnapore district on Friday.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
One person was killed and at least 18 others were injured in a series of clashes between supporters of Trinamool Congress and Communist Party of India since Sunday night in West Midnapore district, police said on Monday.
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.
A day after gunning down Maoist top gun Kishenji in an encounter, joint security forces were on Friday intensively combing the Burisole forest area of West Midnapore district in search of Maoist woman leader Suchitra Mahato and some other associates of the slain ultra.
Elusive Maoist top gun Kishenji was on Thursday killed in an encounter with joint forces at Burisole forest in West Midnapore district, a day after he narrowly escaped from there.The body of 58-year-old Molajula Koteswar Rao, better known as Kishenji, was found and identified after the Jungle Mahal encounter, a top counter-insurgency force official said.
Train services in the Kharagpur-Tatanagar section of South Eastern Railway were suspended on Wednesay after the railways received information that Maoists might target Mumbai-Howrah Duronto Express.
School teacher and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Ranjit Duley, kidnapped by the Maoists at gunpoint from a school in Bankura district on March 4, was released unharmed in West Midnapore district early on Tuesday morning, the police said.
Bullet ridden bodies of four members of the Communist Party of India - Marxist were found on the road in Maoist-affected West Midnapore district in West Bengal on Thursday. A note, believed to have been left behind by the Maoists near the bodies, said the men were accorded the 'extreme punishment' by 'people's verdict' as they had acted as police informers. The police said the three victims had been called out of their homes at approximately 1.30 am and had been gunned down.
Two Communist Party of India-Marxist workers were reportedly hacked to death by the Maoists in West Bengal's West Midnapore district on Wednesday night.
A fresh gunbattle broke out between the Maoists and the joint forces in Salboni area on Saturday, while the police remained tightlipped over reports that top leader Kishenji was injured in Thursday's encounter at Hatiloth forest in West Midnapore district.
The Criminal Investigation Department on Saturday hinted that former Communist Party of India - Marxist minister Sushanta Ghosh could be subjected to a lie detector test, as an unspecified number of cartridges were seized during a search of his three residences in West Midnapore district and Kolkata on Saturday."We might go for a polygraph test of Ghosh if needed," a senior officer of CID said. Ghosh, the sitting legislator of Garbeta, was arrested on August 11.
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.
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.
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.
Class XI students of a school in West Midnapore district who had failed in the annual examination, on Thursday locked up the all the 50-odd staff and secretary after their meeting failed to yield any result.
One person was killed and 25 others were injured, including 18 security personnel, when a clash broke out between joint forces and Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities supporters at Chunapara in West Midnapore district on Thursday.
Six-year-old Rupsa Sheikh is in a state of shock and has stopped speaking after her mother Salma died in the train derailment in West Midnapore district.
Alert policemen retaliated and exchange around 60 rounds with the ultras.
The death toll in Gyaneswari Express derailment rose to 148 after some more bodies, trapped under the engine of the goods train which had rammed into the derailed coaches, were extricated by rescuers on Sunday morning.
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.
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.
Union minister V Muraleedharan has alleged that his convoy was attacked by goons of Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress during his visit to the state.
A US Air Force spokesman also confirmed in Kolkata that 12 F-16 aircraft had already reached the Kalaikunda airbase.
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.
The lines between reality, facts and opinions are blurred in Lalgarh, which remains trapped in a vicious circle of oppression and retribution, finds Sanchari Bhattacharya
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