Maoist spokesperson Gaur Chakraborty was arrested in Kolkata last evening under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the law the Centre used Monday to designate the Naxalite outfit a terrorist organisation. The decision came just after accepting the central decision in the cabinet meeting led by the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee. The police picked up the 73-year-old Chakraborty as he stepped out of a television studio in Park Circus. Chakraborty was handed over to the special branch, the city police’s intelligence wing, and taken to an office on Lord Sinha Road for interrogation.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee yesterday chose to act like chief minister, declaring that the Delhi ban against Maoists would apply to Bengal and paving the way for the arrest of a CPI (Maoist) spokesperson under a central law, a news paper reported. “The central act banning the CPI (Maoist) will be applicable to all states across the nation, so Bengal cannot be an exception,” Bhattacharjee said after a cabinet meeting. The chief minister took care to address concerns among a section of his colleagues who objected to his stand at the cabinet meeting. “But how and when and against whom this is applied will depend on the state government. Against this backdrop, the state government has no necessity to either enact a new law or frame new rules,” Bhattacharjee said.
Kolkata will get a combat force trained on the lines of the elite National Security Guard to deal with terrorists. The police brass had proposed the force a few months ago but the state cabinet cleared it yesterday, in the middle of the crackdown in Lalgarh against Maoist guerrillas. “This 1,000-strong force will be specifically for the city and equipped to tackle different forms of terrorist attacks,” chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said. Until the new facility is ready, the training will be given at the Police Training School in Alipore. Home department sources said the first batch would be ready by 2010. According to initial estimates, the commando school could cost around Rs 55 crore. The state government will have to spend around Rs 8 crore a year to run it, said a source in Kolkata police.
Lalgarh police also recorded a complaint on their own against artistes like Aparna Sen and Kaushik Sen who had visited the area on Sunday, newspaper reported. But the police made a distinction by filing only a general diary. If the police choose to, they can now file an FIR under Section 144 of the IPC, not the anti-terror law, against the artistes for flouting orders that prohibited the assembly of more than four persons. The non-bail-able central law carries a minimum punishment of five years in prison while Section 144 is bail-able with a maximum punishment of a two-year term.
Maoists and their supporters yesterday looted and burnt down two CPM offices, one near Purulia’s Burrabazar and the other close to Jhargram, West Midnapore.
The main objectives of the 40 members of the CRPF’s Cobra force is to flush out the guerrillas from the jungles so they are not able to detonate improvised explosive devices. “The IEDs planted along the route need to be detonated; they don’t explode under pressure,” said an officer.
The Maoists have said their strategy was being overseen by Kishanji, the leader of their armed squad who is camping in Lalgarh. “He is personally monitoring our operations,” a Maoist said. “It won’t be easy for the police.”
West Midnapore district magistrate S.N. Nigam and his assistant Ashwini Yadav — and block development officer Saurav Barik drew up a short-term relief and rehabilitation blueprint for the Binpur region. “There are 54 ration shops in the area but they have not been functioning properly for months. We will revive them to ensure food,” said the official
No comments:
Post a Comment