Post by Dawn of the Red on Jul 22, 2012 8:07:06 GMT -5
Maoists tiptoe into Lalgarh
PRONAB MONDAL
Lalgarh, July 19: Key Maoist leaders are reorganising in Lalgarh and adjoining forest areas, Intelligence Branch (IB) officials have said.
The leaders, including Akash, Bikash and Tara, are regularly visiting at least 15 villages in West Midnapore’s Lalgarh, Salboni and Goaltore and telling residents how the government “ditched” the people of Jungle Mahal and made “false promises”.
According to IB reports, the guerrilla leaders are organising and leading meetings in the villages and trying to recruit local youths.
Maoist leaders lying low since the death of Kishan in an encounter with security forces in November have now come out of their forest hideouts near the Bengal-Jharkhand border, crossed the Kangshabati river and entered Lalgarh and its adjoining areas. “We have information that the rebels are back in Lalgarh,” an IB official said.
Asked about the recent arrest of Bikram, who was leading an 80-strong Maoist squad in Purulia and conducting a recruitment drive in the district, the official said: “His arrest won’t make much of a difference as there are many to take his place.”
Banibrata Basu, the additional director-general of the IB, said: “We have alerted the government about the rebel outfit’s efforts to reorganise in Jungle Mahal.”
The IB official said Bikash, the first Maoist to appear before the media during the height of the Lalgarh movement in 2009, was the “biggest threat” to the security forces now.
“He knows the Jungle Mahal terrain like the back of his hand. Unlike most other leaders, who come to Bengal from other states, he is a son of the soil. He is going from village to village with his aides and holding four to five meetings every night,” another IB official said.
The villages where the Maoists are holding meetings are inside dense forests and have a number of escape routes. The guerrillas are camping in the forests during the day. They get food from nearby villages.
A Maoist leader camping in Salboni’s Metala forest said: “All the villages where we are campaigning are around Lalgarh. If we can start an extensive mass movement in the near future, we will succeed in cordoning off Lalgarh as we had done in 2008.”
The government is rebuilding the Kalaimuri police camp in Lalgarh that Maoists had blown up in 2009 because it fears that the rebels may again set up base in the area, the IB sources said. The camp was shut down in April 2009 after the area’s tribal residents stopped the 90-odd policemen posted there from buying provisions.
The government had initially faced problems in rebuilding the camp as no contractor wanted to take up the project for fear of antagonising the Maoists.
After the public works department floated a fresh tender, a contractor from Midnapore town agreed to rebuild the three-storey camp.
The Maoists have been threatening the contractors to stop work. “They planted an IED in front of the camp on June 11 this year. The bomb did not explode. The rebels also put up posters threatening to stall work,” an IB official said.
A Kalaimuri resident said: “They (Maoists) come here frequently and request us to attend their meetings. But they no longer threaten us like before. They are trying to win our hearts. They tell us how the new government made false promises, how only youths from politically influential families in Jungle Mahal are getting jobs as constables by giving bribes and how we are going to face police atrocities again.”
www.telegraphindia.com/1120720/jsp/bengal/story_15750603.jsp#.UAv63jSPXh8
PRONAB MONDAL
Lalgarh, July 19: Key Maoist leaders are reorganising in Lalgarh and adjoining forest areas, Intelligence Branch (IB) officials have said.
The leaders, including Akash, Bikash and Tara, are regularly visiting at least 15 villages in West Midnapore’s Lalgarh, Salboni and Goaltore and telling residents how the government “ditched” the people of Jungle Mahal and made “false promises”.
According to IB reports, the guerrilla leaders are organising and leading meetings in the villages and trying to recruit local youths.
Maoist leaders lying low since the death of Kishan in an encounter with security forces in November have now come out of their forest hideouts near the Bengal-Jharkhand border, crossed the Kangshabati river and entered Lalgarh and its adjoining areas. “We have information that the rebels are back in Lalgarh,” an IB official said.
Asked about the recent arrest of Bikram, who was leading an 80-strong Maoist squad in Purulia and conducting a recruitment drive in the district, the official said: “His arrest won’t make much of a difference as there are many to take his place.”
Banibrata Basu, the additional director-general of the IB, said: “We have alerted the government about the rebel outfit’s efforts to reorganise in Jungle Mahal.”
The IB official said Bikash, the first Maoist to appear before the media during the height of the Lalgarh movement in 2009, was the “biggest threat” to the security forces now.
“He knows the Jungle Mahal terrain like the back of his hand. Unlike most other leaders, who come to Bengal from other states, he is a son of the soil. He is going from village to village with his aides and holding four to five meetings every night,” another IB official said.
The villages where the Maoists are holding meetings are inside dense forests and have a number of escape routes. The guerrillas are camping in the forests during the day. They get food from nearby villages.
A Maoist leader camping in Salboni’s Metala forest said: “All the villages where we are campaigning are around Lalgarh. If we can start an extensive mass movement in the near future, we will succeed in cordoning off Lalgarh as we had done in 2008.”
The government is rebuilding the Kalaimuri police camp in Lalgarh that Maoists had blown up in 2009 because it fears that the rebels may again set up base in the area, the IB sources said. The camp was shut down in April 2009 after the area’s tribal residents stopped the 90-odd policemen posted there from buying provisions.
The government had initially faced problems in rebuilding the camp as no contractor wanted to take up the project for fear of antagonising the Maoists.
After the public works department floated a fresh tender, a contractor from Midnapore town agreed to rebuild the three-storey camp.
The Maoists have been threatening the contractors to stop work. “They planted an IED in front of the camp on June 11 this year. The bomb did not explode. The rebels also put up posters threatening to stall work,” an IB official said.
A Kalaimuri resident said: “They (Maoists) come here frequently and request us to attend their meetings. But they no longer threaten us like before. They are trying to win our hearts. They tell us how the new government made false promises, how only youths from politically influential families in Jungle Mahal are getting jobs as constables by giving bribes and how we are going to face police atrocities again.”
www.telegraphindia.com/1120720/jsp/bengal/story_15750603.jsp#.UAv63jSPXh8