With tribal agitators on warpath, a company of Central force arrived in restive Lalgarh in West Midnapore district on Tuesday as the West Bengal government sought more companies to assist the police.
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.
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.
A directional landmine blast took place at Baroa, 17 km from Salboni, from where the West Bengal CM, Paswan, state industry minister Nirupam Sen and industrialist Sajjan Jindal were returning after laying the foundation stone of Jindal Steel Works plant, police said.
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.
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.
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.
Fierce gun battles took place on Monday between the Maoists and combined security forces at three places in West Midnapore district, a day after four Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans were gunned down by the extremists at Gidhni bazar in Kolkata.
Four Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans were killed in a surprise assault by Maoists in Gidhni in West Midnapore on Sunday, hours after Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wrapped up a two-day visit to the violence-hit district. Claiming responsibility for the killings, top Maoist leader Koteshar Rao alias Kishanji dared the central government to deploy as many forces as they wanted in the embattled area.
There was no possibility of holding talks with Maoists or tribal group PCPA, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee said on Sunday even as he maintained that law and order in Naxal-infested Lalgarh and adjacent areas has improved but more work needs to be done.
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.
The First Information Report that was filed against the hijackers of the Rajdhani Express doesn't mention the role played by the Maoists or the armed wing of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, both of which claimed responsibility for the incident.The FIR filed by railway authorities in West Midnapore's Rajdhani hostage case is being seen as a move to shield the Maoists. The FIR was lodged with the Jhargram Government Railway Police.
Passengers, who were traveling by the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express which was held up by Maoist-backed agitators for over five hours on Tuesday in West Midnapore in West Bengal, on Wednesday voiced their apprehensions over the lack of security measures in passenger trains.
Passengers, who were traveling by the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express which was held up by Maoist-backed agitators for over five hours on Tuesday in West Midnapore in West Bengal, on Wednesday voiced their apprehensions over the lack of security measures in passenger trains."There was no security arrangement in the train. No security personnel of the police department or the railway police force were there," said one passenger.
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.
Passengers of the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express had a harrowing time on Tuesday, when armed tribal agitators halted their train, smashed glass panes of the AC compartments and forcibly opened the doors, before taking away the drivers, at Banstala in Maoist-infested West Midnapore district. "The train had just crossed Jhargram Station and was passing through a densely forested patch when a large mob attacked it with stones," recalled a passenger.
With firing having erupted in West Midnapore district on Tuesday, Maoist leader Kishenji demanded security forces stop it as a condition for the release of two abducted drivers of Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani.
The Centre has assured the West Bengal government that it would not withdraw the 1,700 personnel of central security forces from the three Maoist-hit districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, even though assembly elections in adjoining Jharkhand is round the corner.
Maoist leader Kishenji on Wednesday said Atindranath Dutta, the police officer whom they abducted in West Midnapore district, will be produced before the media soon but will be released only after the women arrested by the security forces are freed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A close aide of top Maoist leader Kishenji and main accused in the Jharkhand MP Sunil Mahato murder case was arrested from a forest in Salboni in West Midnapore district on Friday.
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.
"We are going to villages surrounding Ramgarh and consolidating our position and reassuring the people that they were now free from the fear of Maoists," Burdwan Assistant Superintendent of Police Humayun Kabir told PTI.
The Union Home Ministry has already sent a total of 16 companies (1,600 personnel), including an all-women company, to the state to tackle the Lalgarh situation.
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.
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.
The Jhargram train attack that killed at least 75 people on Friday is the latest of the over 65 Maoist attacks in the past one year that have targeted the railways. The Left-wing extremists have carried out four attacks on railway properties in May alone. On May 19, they triggered a landmine blast on railway tracks near Jhargram in West Midnapore district, injuring two drivers of a goods train and leaving the engine partially damaged.
The beheaded body of a school teacher, kidnapped by Maoists, was found near Goaltore in the restive West Midnapore district on Tuesday, police sources said.The teacher, Satya Kinkar Hansda, of Sirisboni village, had been threatened earlier by the ultras for being the member of a rival organisation. He was picked up by an armed cadre on Monday night and his decapitated body was found in a nearby jungle today morning, sources said.
Suspected Maoists shot dead a local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader in Jhargram area of West Midnapore district on Monday, the police said.
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