Troops advance from Lalgarh towards 17 Maoist-held villages

Saibal Gupta

Lalgarh (WB), June 21 (PTI) After reclaiming control of
key Lalgarh police station area, security forces on Sunday
pushed deeper to break the Maoist siege of 17 villages
considered strongholds of the ultras and tribals backed by
them.

Security sources said the troops consisting of CRPF, BSF
and West Bengal police started moving from Lalgarh to Ramgarh
in an operation aimed at sanitising the main road and other
connecting routes and wresting control of the 17 villages.

But the 19-km journey from Lalgarh, which the troops
reclaimed yesterday, is likely to be one of the toughest as
the road has been mined and the area heavily forested.

The strategy of the forces will focus on wresting control
of Barapelia, Chotopelia and Dalilpurchak in West Midnapore
district where top Maoist leaders were reportedly holed up,
senior police officers engaged in the operation said.

Barapelia is the home of Maoist-backed People's Committee
against Police Atrocity (PCPA) convener Chatradhar Mahato and
the PCPA headquarters.

After a night halt at a school premises in Lalgarh, the
joint forces began a mine-clearing exercise on the
Lalgarh-Ramgarh road, the sources said.

Security forces had yesterday moved into Lalgarh and
taken control of the police station even as ambushed a convoy
en route to the area injuring six policemen.

The forces were advancing slowly as the entire stretch
leading to the villages was believed to be full of landmines.

In the past three days, the forces advanced barely 7 km
from Pirakata where the operations began on June 18.

Earlier, the joint forces had planned to launch a scissor
attack on the 17 villages simultaneously from Lalgarh and
Ramgarh.

But the operation from Pingboni to Ramgarh was halted
following fierce resistance on Saturday by Maoist guerrillas
at Pingbani-Sarenga More in Kadasole jungle where six
policemen were injured and four Maoists were killed, sources
said.

Clearing operations were conducted yesterday in Jhitka
forest which is used by Maoists as the corridor to Dalma
forest of Jharkhand from the three hilly districts of West
Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia.

The BSF has pitched a camp in the forest and is building
bunkers at Pirakata, officials said.

Senior officers engaged in the operation feel the
operation to regain the 17 villages would be tough as the
Maoists wield considerable influence among the villagers.

These villages have been out of bounds for the police
ever since the landmine blast on the convoys of Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then Union ministers Ram Vilas
Paswan and Jitindra Prasad on November 2.

Police have launched extensive search operations in
vehicles going from Pirakata to Lalgarh. PTI SAG
ASJ
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