The decision of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) to attend Mamata Banerjee’s ‘apolitical’ Lalgarh rally on Monday (August 9) has put party leaders in a dilemma.TMC supremo Mamata statigically does not want the support of the Maoist backed PCPA but her party leaders think that the success of the rally depends on the participation of the Organisation.After the arrest of Chhatradhar Mahato the leader of PCPA,Maoists have intensified their activities in West Bengal.Bengal police also arrested an important CPI(Maoist) leaders from different parts of West Bengal.
Trouble started on Nov.2,2008, when two union ministers and chief minister of Bengal, Buddhadev Bhattacharya narrowly escaped from an explosion.Investigations by the police revealed that the Lalgarh squad of the Maoists were behind the attack .Three of the six people arrested in connection with the Lalgarh blast in West Midnapore District were school going boys.On Nov.9,a tribal outfit had set a series of conditions against the arrests of ‘innocent villagers’ to the District administration.Local people cutoff 25 out of 100 villages in Lalgarh,disconnecting them from the rest of the Midnapore district.They also cut off the last road connecting Lalgarh to the rest of the state.Maoists threatened an armed resistance in the area.On Nov.14,Pulishi Santrash Birodhi Jonosadharoner Committee (People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities ) a new outfit was formed. PCPA also boycotted the general election in Lalgarh areas.
On June 18,2008,Paramilitary forces led by Bengal police started offensive against Maoists in Lalgarh.Marxist government of Bengal try to take back Maoist-controlled Lalgarh and surrounding areas.Large number of Paramilitary forces led by Bengal police.Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF)’s COBRA unit specializes in jungle warfare are also involved in this operation.But regular bandhs (general strike ) and blockades called by the Maoists in Jangalmahal (forested south-western part of West Bengal) upset local people.As West Bengal government launched a counter-offensive against the CPI-Maoist, the insurgents intensified their attack on Marxists leaders and workers.Bullet ridden bodies and bodies are find in the Maoists controlled areas.Hundreds of villagers in the Lalgarh area fled as Security Forces started combing operations to flash out Maoists insursents.Heavy exchange of fire between the Security Forces and Maoists in areas adjacent to Lalgarh in West Midnapore District are common .This year Maoists continue their attack on civilian and security personnel. On February 15,at least 25 security forces personnel, mostly belonging to the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR), were killed and several others injured when a large group of Maoist cadres attacked a security forces camp at Silda in West Midnapore.On May 28,at least 148 passengers were killed after suspected Maoist cadres triggered a blast on railway track causing derailment of 13 coaches of the Howrah-Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Express between Khemasoli and Sardiya stations near Jhargram in West Midnapore District. About 150 others were injured.On June 17,The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Bapi Mahato, Umakanta Mahato and Asit Mahato of the Maoist-backed PCPA as key accused in the Gyaneshwari Express mishap.On June 16,joint forcers got major success against Maoist insurgents when at least 10 Maoist cadres were killed and several others injured in an encounter at Ranja forest near Lalgarh, in the West Midnapore District.
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