Lalgarh The Red fort

When it comes to political leaders moving with a gun-toting entourage, there is little difference these days between Western Uttar Pradesh and the Maoist-affected areas of West Midnapore.
During my journalist friend's trip to Lalgarh, several encounters with the zonal leaders of the CPM proved that panic has struck the party hard ever since the tribal agitation began on November 5.
Those blessed with clout are granted security personnel from the state’s armed forces. The officials in the district administration confided that over 100 grassroots leaders now move with private protectors. The threat perception is said to be “real” from Maoists, who have strong pockets of influence in the region.
On way to Lalgarh, at Bottola Chalk near the local CPM party office, The Indian Express met Anuj Pande, the party’s zonal committee secretary. Moving around with gun-totting securitymen provided by the government, Pande still looks a scared man.

Lalgarh The Red Fort

The agitation against alleged police excesses by pre-dominantly tribal villagers continued on Sunday. Fresh roadblocks were put up further isolating the Lalgarh area — a region where the Maoists have a strong presence — from the rest of West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district.
The more than week-long protests, over alleged police excesses during raids to track down those responsible for the IED blast that narrowly missed Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy on November 2, had spread to new areas.
Leaders of different tribal groups formed a committee to resist such “atrocities” on local people. The situation in some other parts of Jhargram sub-division, where trees were felled to set up roadblocks, remained largely unchanged. Roads leading to different parts of Lalgarh had been dug up to prevent police movement.
Members of a tribal students’ group staged a demonstration on National Highway 6 that links Kolkata with Mumbai at Lodhashuli. A large number of vehicles were stranded as a result. Several trains were detained at various places, some were rescheduled and a few cancelled following squatting on the tracks by supporters of the Jharkhand Disam Party that had called a 12-hour bandh in support of its demands.
Action against those in the police administration responsible for the excesses in the Lalgarh area was the major demand. The bandh evoked a partial response in parts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia districts.

New voices in Lalgarh

Nov. 14: A new team of tribals from Lalgarh told district authorities today that the government would have to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to each villager injured in police raids and searches should be stopped from 5pm to 6am.

The delegation of the Pulishi Santrash Birodhi Jonosadharoner Committee (panel to protest police atrocities) was led by its secretary, Sidhu Soren. The committee was formed last night after villagers accused the Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa, a group of elders negotiating with the officials till now, of “betraying the tribal cause”.

The panel put forward a list of 11 demands. The elders had wanted compensation earlier, but the amount was specified today. They had asked night raids to be stopped, too, but had not spoken of the time.

The police suspect the new committee has the backing of Maoists. Additional district magistrate (general) R.A. Israel, however, refused comment on the matter.

“Today, we did not come to work out a solution. We submitted our demands. They told us they would not be able to fulfil some of them. The SP will have to go to Dalilpur and announce the decision in front of villagers,” Soren said.

“We will discuss administration’s views with the villagers tomorrow and then decide our next course of action.”

Israel, who spoke to the team of 10 tribals, ruled out the possibility of the SP going to Dalilpur, which falls in the Lalgarh police station area, because of security reasons.

The committee repeated two earlier demands that the officials have rejected. One, that the district police chief should squat and apologise holding his ears. Second, that policemen should crawl from Dalilpur to Chhotopelia.

Israel added that “releasing those who were arrested with arms in connection with the (November 2) blast is not possible”. “We have asked them (the committee) to file a written complaint against those policemen whom they are accusing (of atrocities). A probe will be conducted.

“We have assured them (the committee) that the policemen in the camps set up in schools and hospitals will be removed once peace is restored. The administration will bear the cost of treatment of those injured in the November 5 raids.”

Today, the roadblock in Dahijuri was lifted, but Jhargram town remained cut off from the rest of the state because the damaged roads had not been repaired.

In Calcutta, home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said night raids would stop, but did not specify the time. “We have decided there will be no night raids. But the road digging will not be tolerated indefinitely.”

Tribals stick to tree siege

Lalgarh/Jhargram, Nov. 13: Lalgarh continued to remain under siege as tribals turned a deaf ear to requests from their leaders to clear trees from Jhargram’s roads this evening.

The tribal leaders held a meeting in the afternoon with the district administration, which agreed to some of their demands (see chart).

The leaders agreed to lift blockades in all places except Lalgarh. Nearly 300 members of the Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa (BJMM), who met tonight to discuss the Lalgarh impasse, will hold talks with the administration to find a solution.

Armed with the officials’ assurances, the leaders went to the protesters and asked them to remove trees from roads in Jhargram, but the tribals turned violent, even hitting one of their leaders.

Convener of the BJMM’s youth wing Munshiram Murmu was assaulted for “agreeing” to withdraw the blockade, thus “neglecting” the plight of the victims of police atrocities in Lalgarh.

“Normality must return to Lalgarh first... only then will we allow blockades to be withdrawn from other places,” shouted Anup Soren.

Jhargram’s last link to the rest of the state — a metalled road from Midnapore town via Dherua — was cut off by trees today. Villagers also blocked roads in Goaltore and Salboni.

District officials alleged Maoists had “infiltrated” the tribal agitation and were trying to ensure that the area continued to simmer. They stressed their point saying every time a demand was met, a fresh one cropped up, which was often “impossible” to agree to.

District authorities said the latest demand, that all tribals arrested over the last 10 years be released irrespective of their offence, was “absurd”.

Four students belonging to the Santhal Engineering Students’ Welfare Association reached Lalgarh this afternoon to join the protest against the “torture and exploitation of tribals”. Two of them are from the Bengal Engineering and Science University and two from Vidyasagar Polytechnic College in Jhargram town. 

Maoists threaten Lalgarh war

Midnapore, Nov. 12: Maoists today threatened an armed resistance in West Midnapore’s Lalgarh where tribals have been protesting police raids and detentions following a blast that missed the chief minister by minutes.

CPI (Maoist) state secretary Kanchan said: “We are with the people of Lalgarh. Our guerrilla squad is with them to build an armed resistance. I appeal to the Lalgarh people to follow the Nandigram path by setting up road blocks and snapping electricity and telephone connections to teach the CPM and police a lesson.”

Villagers armed with bows and arrows tonight placed at least 30 trees at various points on the road that branches off NH 6 and leads to Jhargram town. They also blocked the road connecting Jhargram with Jamboni. “They are trying to cut off the town,” a police officer said.

The road to Jhargram from Midnapore town had not been touched till late tonight.

In East Midnapore’s Nandigram, villagers led by the Trinamul Congress and all- egedly aided by Maoists had created a similar island of unrest, cut-off from the administration.

In Jhargram, the villagers wrote on the road: “The police have to explain why innocent villagers were arrested on suspicion of being Maoists.”

Tribal youths continued to obstruct the state highway connecting Midnapore town with Bandwan in Purulia.

“The Maoists have been instigating the villagers. We have got some vital information after questioning three persons picked up from Binpur and Jamboni on November 6,” said West Midnapore police chief R.K. Singh. He declined comment when asked why the intelligence branch had failed to tip off the administration about Maoist activities.

Armed policemen had pounced on schoolchildren returning from a soiree and tried to link them with the rebels while probing the blast at Salboni that hit a car in Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s convoy on November 2. Women were allegedly beaten up during the raids that followed.

District magistrate N.S. Nigam said the allegations of police misconduct would be probed. “I appeal to the agitating villagers to return home and let us redress their grievances through talks,” he said.

Tribals force police to free 6

Nov. 10: Tribals today forced police to free six youths and snapped the last road connecting Lalgarh to the rest of the state, but late tonight they offered to repair a state highway.

Around 6am, about 300 tribal youths with bows and arrows marched from Dahijuri in Binpur block to Betkundri and started digging up the metalled state highway connecting Midnapore town with Purulia’s Bandwan.

Around 8.30, a police contingent arrived at Betkundri, about 5km from Jhargram town and told the tribals, affiliated to the youth wing of Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa, an outfit of village elders, to stop digging.

The villagers refused, following which the police arrested six youths on the charge of unlawful assembly and seized their weapons and drums. They were taken to Jhargram.

As news of the arrest spread, over 2,000 men and women, bows and arrows in hand, gathered at Dahijuri, about 8km from Jhargram town, and obstructed the highway demanding immediate release of the six. “The police torture us at the slightest pretext. The government thinks all Santhals are Maoists. Whenever there is a Maoist attack, the Santhals are picked up,” said protester Priya Tudu.

The angry, slogan-shouting villagers circled the contingent and hurled abuses. Some women reportedly pushed the policemen but the force did not react, keeping to instructions to exercise restraint.

Realising that tension was mounting in the area, the police released the six tribals and took them back to Dahijuri.

“We arrested the six under a bailable section. We released them on a personal bond,” said West Midnapore superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar Singh. “We have asked the police to work with restraint.”

Later in the morning, around 1,000 tribals dug up a road at Brindabanpur that connects Lalgarh to Jhargram and Midnapore towns.

But in the evening, tribal leaders assured the West Midnapore administration that the villagers would repair the road dug up this afternoon at Betkundri. They said they would take a decision on repairing the other roads after speaking to the people of Lalgarh.

The tribals also withdrew their demand that SP Singh would have to do “sit-ups holding his ears” and all policemen of Lalgarh would have to “crawl” from Dalilpur to Chhotopelia village, if they want normality to return.

In Calcutta, director-general of police A.B.Vohra promised to look into “specific complaints about police harassment”. “Specific complaints from villagers will be looked into. I shall also take action against those found guilty.”

Tribals want police boss to do ‘sit-ups’

Lalgarh, Nov. 9: A tribal outfit has set a series of conditions, including “sit-ups by the West Midnapore police chief holding his ears”, to end a Nandigram-style backlash against raids that followed last Sunday’s Maoist blast.

The charter of demands by the group of village elders, the Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa, was made public after an all-party meeting collapsed because of an alleged comment by a CPM leader that was seen as casting aspersions on the Opposition.

Tribals armed with bows and arrows have dug up roads and placed at least 40 tree trunks across a 40km-long road in West Midnapore’s Lalgarh, an area where Maoists are known to be active, cloning the tactics seen in Nandigram.

Around 25 of the 100 villages in Lalgarh have been cut off from the roads connecting them to the rest of the district. The blockade is not insurmountable now but the administration, which has deployed a large number of policemen, is showing restraint to avoid a repeat of Nandigram where several people had been killed.

The Lalgarh protests had begun after the police, apparently eager to show results in the investigation into the blast that struck Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s car, picked up three teenagers as suspects.

The all-party meeting today lasted over an hour but an alleged comment by CPM zonal committee member Joydeb Giri triggered an uproar.

Giri reportedly said workers of Opposition parties were indulging in Maoist activities at night, prompting tribal leaders as well as representatives of the Trinamul Congress and the Jharkhand Party (Aditya) to walk out. Only a Santhal tribal leader, Padmalochan Soren, remained at the meeting chaired by district magistrate N.S. Nigam.

“After the comment from the CPM member, we felt there was no need for the meeting, so we walked out,” said Mohammad Rafique, a Trinamul leader. Jharkhand Party (Aditya) leader Asit Khatua said: “It is because of this attitude of the CPM that we are being branded Maoists and are being harassed by the police.”

CPM leader Giri denied the Opposition allegation: “I only said that Maoists should not be provided shelter by political parties.”

Later, the Majhi Marwa issued the charter of demands that asked the West Midnapore police superintendent, Rajesh Kumar Singh, to apologise before the media with folded hands for the raids.

Prabir Murmu, a leader of the outfit, said: “The SP will have to do sit-ups holding his ears. All policemen of Lalgarh police station will have to crawl from Dalilpur to Chhotopelia village. Women who were beaten up by the police during the raids will have to be given Rs 2 lakh compensation. All villagers arrested over the past several years in connection with Maoist activities will have to be released and all cases withdrawn.”

Home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said there would be more meetings.

Target Buddha, claim Maoists

Midnapore, Nov. 7: The CPI (Maoist) today confirmed that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was the target of Sunday’s blast in West Midnapore and threatened “countless explosions” in the future.

The statement came on a day villagers in Lalgarh, close to the blast site, dug up roads to stop police raids to catch Maoists.

The attack on November 2 was aimed at the chief minister’s convoy, the statement issued by Kanchan, secretary of the outfit’s Bengal chapter, said. Even if the police strengthened his Z-plus security four times over, he would still not be safe, it said. “Countless explosions would take place in the near future.”

“If the CPM and the police continue attacking us, we will take revenge. We will not let Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Biman Bose sleep and the state government’s armoury will not be enough to protect them,” the letter said.

The outfit claimed that the explosion proved local people supported the Maoists’ attack and described the operation as “a symbol of people’s resistance”.

Bhattacharjee escaped as his convoy crossed the spot 15 minutes before the blast. The lead pilot car in Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s convoy suffered the brunt of the explosion.

The CPI (Maoist) also criticised the government’s decision to suspend relatively junior police personnel.

Nearly 4,000 tribals from about a dozen villages dug up the roads connecting West Midnapore and Bankura today.

Rajesh Kumar Singh, West Midnapore superintendent of police, said: “The villagers are digging up the roads in Lalgarh to prevent the raids. We are looking for people hiding in the villages and assisting the Maoists. But we will continue the raids.”

The villagers also gheraoed the police station in Lalgarh town and cut power supply to the area protesting the arrest of three school-going teenagers. The three got bail today, but three others arrested yesterday were remanded in police custody for a week.

A team from Calcutta’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory visited the blast site today. 

Buddha Bombed

Salboni, Nov. 2: An explosion struck a convoy carrying two Union ministers returning from a high-profile investment event in West Midnapore, the bomb going off soon after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s car had crossed the same spot this afternoon.

The attack blamed on Maoists not only exposed Bengal’s stupor in the face of recent blasts in the east but also overshadowed the stone-laying ceremony for the Jindal steel project in Salboni, an event that was supposed to lessen the Singur pain and breathe some life into the flagging industrialisation drive in Bengal.

Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan and his deputy Jitin Prasada escaped unhurt. But the attack shattered the bonhomie seen on the dais less than an hour ago, with Paswan frowning upon Bhattacharjee’s decision to leave early and questioning the security arrangements in the state.

Six guards in the lead pilot car of Paswan’s convoy suffered shrapnel injuries in the improvised landmine explosion. The condition of police driver Mukul Phul Mali (50) and constable Judhistir Mahato (24) — admitted to a hospital in Calcutta — is said to be critical.

In Paswan’s vehicle were Jitin and Jindal Steel vice-chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal — all of whom were on the dais with a beaming Bhattacharjee at Salboni less than an hour ago. Navin, Sajjan’s brother and a Congress MP, was in another car.

Two police vehicles separated Paswan’s Innova and the pilot car that was lifted several feet off the ground in the explosion, suspected to have been triggered by Maoists who were apparently lying in wait a little over a kilometre away.

The bomb, planted near a bridge on Kalaichandi canal near Barua village, about 150 km from Calcutta, was ignited around 2.15pm using a 1,200-metre wire that snaked through adjacent paddy fields towards railway tracks, police said.

Around 15 people from nearby villages were detained tonight for questioning, the police said.

The pilot car landed on its wheels and its tyres burst but driver Mali managed to take the vehicle — which looked as if it had been raked with automatic fire — across the 15-foot-wide bridge and then slumped unconscious.

The convoy paused for less than a minute and then proceeded towards the Kalaikunda airbase 25km away, from where the ministers took off for Delhi.

The chief minister’s convoy had sped past the same stretch in Barua village 15 minutes before the blast. The police said he could have been the target and the Maoists might have mistaken Paswan’s convoy for Bhattacharjee’s.

“I don’t know whether I was the target. I will be able to tell you tomorrow. I have sent senior police officials to the blast site for investigation,” Bhattacharjee said later in the afternoon. Intelligence agencies have said the chief minister tops the list of Maoist targets.

According to the police, explosives were packed inside a plastic milk can — a tactic usually used by Maoists. “We think they used plastic instead of steel to get past metal detectors,” said an officer.

The last time the Maoists blew up a car was on October 22 when a doctor, a nurse and their driver were killed in Belpahari in West Midnapore. Metal milk cans were then used.

Today’s blast snapped overhead high-tension wires but there was no electricity in them as the lines were under construction. The police are wondering whether the attackers wanted the wires to fall on a vehicle and electrocute the occupants.

“If there was electricity in those wires, it would have been disastrous,” said Dilip Kumar Mitra, the superintending engineer of the state power distribution company in Midnapore.

The other injured are assistant sub-inspector of police Ranjit Mondal (51), constable Kartick Maity (26) and National Volunteer Force jawans Rabindranath Mahato (57) and Alakavo Chowdhury (41).

The Maoists had issued a public statement 10 days ago against the steel project and this afternoon’s meeting was finalised more than a month ago — despite which state police could not sanitise the route. The “heightened alert” in the wake of the serial blasts in Assam, too, did not help avert the explosion in Bengal. 

Police shying away from Maoist heartland

RAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Oct 16, 2008 Indian authorities have suspended 17 policemen for refusing to work in a Maoist-dominated area, officials said on Thursday, in what analysts say is a sign of problems police face coping with the rebels in rural pockets.
Four senior police officers and 13 junior officers were suspended for refusing to work in a rebel stronghold in Chhattisgarh, police said.
"Police will not tolerate such indiscipline, several more cops mainly drawn from inspector and sub-inspector ranks, are in the line of fire," R.K. Vij, a top police officer, told Reuters.
Security experts said police are often sent to forests without adequate weapons or protection, ending up isolated and at risk in thinly staffed outposts.
"A great deal of deployment is irrational and the government is deliberately sending the policemen to their deaths it seems," said Ajai Sahni of New Delhi's Institute for Conflict Management.
Sahni has long argued that the police are massively under-resourced to cope with the Maoist threat.
In July, 38 policemen of the elite anti-insurgency unit were killed by the rebels in Orissa. At the time, analysts said they had been "sitting ducks", lacking proper knowledge of the jungle territory.
Thousands of people, including hundreds of policemen, have been killed in the insurgency, which began in the late 1960s and affects pockets of the countryside in eastern and central India.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the insurgency as the gravest threat to India's internal security.
In Jharkhand, the government has been forced to delay creation of a special force to tackle the Maoist threat after several officers refused to join.
The government has now promised higher wages to attract officers to join the new force.
On Thursday, four railway officials were abducted by suspected Maoist rebels in a remote district in the same state, which police said was deliberately done to intimidate them.
One police officer who was recently posted to a Maoist-hit area in West Bengal told Reuters that he was forced to live in a tent and almost never slept at night.
"It is a situation where they cannot defend themselves, leave alone protect people's lives," Sahni said.
In remote villages, the doors of police posts are often locked after dark because police fear night raids.