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.
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.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram expressed confidence on Sunday that that the situation in Naxal-hit West Midnapore district in West Bengal would be brought under control in three to four days. Described Naxals as 'cowards', he said they were retreating into the thick forests even as security forces wrested control of areas dominated by them.
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.
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.
Floods in West Bengal have claimed over 40, with water levels rising arlamingly in East Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Birbhum and Burdwan districts.
Addressing media persons in New Delhi, Chidambaram said: "It was a somewhat bizarre offer. That is because, barely 3 hours after the so-called offer, the CPI (Maoist) attacked a joint patrol party of the West Bengal police and the CRPF in PS Lalgarh, district West Midnapore. The patrol party retaliated and three people were killed."
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.
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.
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.
"I cannot say for sure. There are several people who are known as Kishenji. There is also a possibility of existence of dummies," West Midnapore SP Manoj Kumar Verma told PTI.
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 newly-raised armed wing of tribal agitators, aided by Maoists, were responsible for the seven-and-a-half half hour hijack drama of the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express in a jungle area of West Midnapore district of West Bengal.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
About 6,500 persons were sheltered in 67 relief camps opened in various districts.
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.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist on Saturday rubbished suggestions by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee that a political conspiracy was behind the Gyaneshwari Express disaster in West Midnapore, alleging that she was trying to cover up lapses and failures of her ministry in the incident. Senior CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury also said some elements were 'cynically' using the situation to further their petty partisan interests.
Personal and healthcare major Emami group on Tuesday announced setting up of a bio-diesel plant at Haldia, the first in West Bengal, with an investment of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion).
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
In a major breakthrough, the joint forces killed top-ranking Maoist leader Sasadhar Mahato and arrested a person at Kapgari in the Jamboni police station area in West Midnapore district.
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.
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