Maoists patrol roads, put up human shield in Lalgarh

Saibal Gupta

Lalgarh (West Bengal), June 17 (PTI) Maoists carrying
AK-47 rifles Wednesday patrolled the roads here in the eastern
Indian state of West Bengal, and formed a human shield
comprising women and children vowing to prevent storming of
the area by security forces as a fresh upsurge of violence
killed a CPI-M leader and two party activists.

Having taken over the area after forcing the police
out, agitating tribals, backed by Maoists, dug up the roads at
several places and blocked roads with more than 100 tree
trunks to obstruct movement as 2,100 paramilitary forces,
including a special force raised to combat Left-wing
extremists reached Jhargram, near Lalgarh.

The Maoists armed with AK-47 rifles manned the roads
between Lalgarh and Belpahari, another naxal-infested area,
and erected a three-tier human shield by using children and
women, a senior police official said.

Approachable from four directions by metalled and mud
roads, Lalgarh remained cut-off from three sides after tribals
torched the police stations and ransacked the houses of local
CPI(M) leaders and took over the entire area.

Earlier in the day, six unidentified gunmen riding
motorcycles shot dead local CPI-M leader and two party
supporters.

Alarmed by the continued violence, Home Minister P
Chidambaram today asked West Bengal government to move
security forces to Lalgarh. He suggested the state government
appeared to be divided over whether to send the security
forces to reclaim Maoist-held areas.

The dead Marxist leader Amal Mahato, CPI(M)'s Shimli
branch secretary, was part of a village resistance group which
was assisting the police against the Maoists.

According to a senior Left Front leader, Chief
Minister Bhattacharjee told a Front meeting that a squad of
100 Maoists armed with sophisticated weapons with some trained
at Chaibasa in neighbouring Jharkhand sneaked into Lalgarh and
adjoining areas.

Normal life in Lalgarh continued to be stalled and
high tension prevailed, West Bengal Chief Secretary Ashok
Mohan Chakraborty told reporters in Kolkata after a high-level
meeting to review the situation.

Maoist leader Bikash said the people would resist any
attempt by the administration to send paramilitary forces into
the area.

"We will resist the entry of the administration or
the forces in every possible way," Bikash told PTI over phone.

On the other hand, a senior police official at Jhargram
said "we are not in a hurry at present and are watching the
situation" and Chakraborty said adding central forces "have
not been deployed at Lalgarh as yet".

The Union government asked the Buddhadeb government,
to firmly tell the police to reclaim areas dominated by
Maoists and deal with the "deteriorating" law and order
situation.

Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in Delhi that
he had spoken to the Chief Minister and told him that the
state must move its forces to these troubled areas with clear
instructions to tackle the situation.

The Minister said there was an impression that while one
part of the government was willing to take action against the
Maoists, another was worried about the fallout.

"The impression is that one side of the government is
willing to take action, the other side of the government is
worried about the consequences. Now, it is the judgement the
Chief Minister must make. They must move the (security) forces
to the affected areas and must reclaim that area which is now
dominated by the Maoists," he said.

Agitating tribals of West Midnapore and adjoining areas
have been protesting police "atrocities" on them in the wake
of the landmine blast at Salboni which was believed to target
the Chief Minister and two former union ministers. PTI TEAM
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