Headlines June 22, 2009

"If crisis of food and water emerge, more people will move elsewhere"

"The state government aims to reopen health centres, schools and ration shops in the area to regain confidence of local people"

"CRPF personnel, during raids, used the ponds as toilet, thus polluting the water, which is used for drinking purposes”

No major incidents of retaliation from Maoists were reported till yesterday evening. Deployment of joint forces throughout the 14-km stretch between Pirakata and Lalgarh continued yesterday after the joint forces reopened the gates of Lalgarh police station and set up their base camp. The operation is being delayed due to tactical reasons. “We are trying our best to gain people's confidence”, a senior officer in charge of the operation of the joint forces said.

The Centre has sounded an alert to five Naxalite affected states to take “precautionary and pre-emptive” measures. Maoists called 48 hours strike from today over the ongoing operations in Lalgarh. The alert by the home ministry based on Intelligence reports was specifically for Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal.

Union home minister P Chidambaram issued a statement asking politicians, people and NGOs to stay away from the conflict area in Lalgarh. “The situation in Lalgarh is sensitive and continues to be tense beside the CPI (Maoist) call for a strike”, media reported quoting Chidambaram. “Security forces must carry on their work without distraction. Hence, I appeal to all citizens, especially political leaders, NGOs and others not to go to the conflict area,” Chidambaram said.

The chief secretary A M Chakrabarti urged ministers and intellectuals to stay away from the troubled area Lalgarh as it is tough to ensure proper security for them. He also assured that innocent villagers would not be harassed by the security forces. The chief secretary said that forces would move to the remote areas after sanitising areas like Lalgarh, Binpur, Pirakata and Sarenga. “The state government aims to reopen health centres, schools and ration shops in the area to regain confidence of local people”, Chakraborti said. “Those who have been driven out from their houses or forced to leave their villages would be provided relief,” he said.

The state government also asked Maoists and PSBPC (Police Santras Birodhi Public Committee) members to surrender and help restore normality at Lalgarh and its adjacent areas.

Seven CRPF jawans, who fell sick due to a heat wave, were treated in Lalgarh and later shifted to the Army hospital in Kalaikunda. One of their jawans was taken to Midnapore hospital after he fell sick.

Three persons, suspected to be Maoists, were arrested from Goaltore area yesterday. Fresh trouble erupted in the Belpahari area, where local tribals were engaged in a minor clash with CRPF personnel.

“CRPF personnel, during raids, used the ponds as toilet, thus polluting the water, which is used for drinking purposes”, local people said. The locals yesterday protested and a clash broke out. A CRPF jawan was injured after being hit by an axe, prompting the force to resort to a lathi-charge.

Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee attacked the Congress for not having consulted her before sending forces to crack down on Lalgarh Maoists, media reported. Banerjee said: "The Congress should trust the Trinamul and not the CPI-M which is more dangerous than the poisonous cobra.”

Without naming Trinamul Congress, 16 Left MPs have written to the Prime Minister informing that some members of the Union Council of Ministers were reportedly proceeding to the affected areas and making public comments “which are adversely complicating the operations against the Maoists”.The letter came following some reported statements by certain ministers and Trinamul leaders against the joint operations by state police and central paramilitary forces.

Exodus of villagers from Lalgarh in the wake of the Maoist insurgency in Lalgarh, is actually helping police forces whose sole objective is to flush out Maoists from the area. A newspaper reported today.

Police officers are of the opinion that if the exodus continues, Maoists will soon find themselves confined to Lalgarh and hence would easily be trapped. Officers carrying out the operation feel that since villages bordering Jharkhand remained sealed, Maoists will not be able to flee. “Our strategy is to dissociate Maoists from common people,” said a senior state police officer.

“If fear is instilled in the minds of the common people, they would soon start moving out of their villages which will help us in spotting Maoists,” a newspaper reported quoting a senior state police officer.

“The spate of violence in Lalgarh in the last three days has triggered fear among the people,” he said. According to him, more than 10,000 people of Lalgarh have already moved out of their homes in the last three days following the gun battle between Maoists and security forces. “It is essential to distinguish between them and Maoists. We have kept some ways open to help common people move towards Jhargram,” the officer said. Around 50,000 people live in villages that the PSBPC had captured with the help of the Maoists. “If crisis of food and water emerge, more people will move elsewhere,” the officer said.

CPI (Maoist) leader Koteshwar Rao alias Khishanji had appealed to Intellectuals to visit Lalgrah and “witness the atrocities committed by security forces in the name of police operation”. A team of Intellectuals from Kolkata including noted film director Aparna Sen, theatre personalities Saonli Mitra and Kaushik Sen yesterday held a meeting with villagers and members of the Police Santras Birodhi Public Committee (PSBPC), in an effort to resolve the Lalgarh conflict. The Intellectuals, however, failed to meet Maoists leaders including Kishanji.

“We have heard instances of police personnel dragging women out of their homes and beating them up. We sincerely appeal to the state government and Maoists to observe ceasefire till 14 July,” Aparna Sen said. Aparna Sen and other intellectuals appealed to both the state government and the Maoists to put down arms.

Union ministers of state Sisir Adhikary and Mukul Roy defied the state government warning and entered Salboni. They were allegedly thwarted by groups of CPI-M supporters. They would submit a report to the Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. “In the name of flushing out Maoists, the state government is allowing CPI-M cadres to regain ground in the tribal belt," Adhikary said. They have camped in West Midnapore to campaign against police atrocities and provide relief to the affected villagers.

Naxalites affiliated to the Andhra Pradesh based Chandra Pulla Reddy faction yesterday staged a rally in Burdwan’s Raniganj town protesting against the ongoing operation in Lalgarh. The CPI-ML faction has a stronghold in Raniganj coalfields from where it operates Iftu, ~ its labour front, in a number of coalmines under the Eastern Coalfields. Sunil Pal, state general secretary of the faction said: “It’s total anarchy. The state has been unleashing terror in Lalgarh and its surroundings. In the name of flushing out Maoists, the central forces and the state police is harassing the common people”.

Tension sparked off on the Visva-Bharati (V-B) campus yesterday after seven Maoist posters were found by locals and students in three different areas of Santiniketan. The posters called on the locals to be aware of the alleged police atrocity that was going on in Lalgarh and its adjoining tribal villages for the past four days.