KOLKATA: The ruling Left Front in West Bengal on Sunday observed a "protest day" across the State, condemning the killing of a senior district leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and his wife by Maoists at Bandwan in Purulia district early on Saturday.

A week ago an improvised explosive device, suspected to be planted by Maoists, was found by the side of a road through which Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed 14 hours later to address a peasant's rally of the CPI(M) at Para in the same district.

The CPI(M) State leadership has described the killings as part of a "murderous" campaign of the Maoists to single out and attack party leaders . In all, 31 leaders and workers have been murdered by extremists operating in the State's south-western districts of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore since the last Assembly elections in 2001, according to the CPI(M)'s State secretary, Anil Biswas. Of this, 11 persons were killed in Purulia district alone.

Mr. Biswas, who is also a member of the party's Polit Bureau, has pointed out that leaders of both the Congress and Trinamool Congress — the main Opposition parties in the State — have been conspicuous in their silence over the spate of attacks by Maoist extremists on CPI(M) leaders and workers over the past years.

Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front and also a member of the Polit Bureau, alleged that the extremists operating in the region were receiving support from workers of these two parties.

A victim of Saturday killings, Rabindranath Kar, a CPI(M) district secretariat member and former Purulia zilla sabhadhipati, was one of the senior-most party leaders to have been murdered by the Maoists. According to the party leadership the timing of the killing is significant — months before the Assembly polls due in the State. There were similar incidents of violence perpetrated by the extremists during the run-up to the 2001 elections and the recent murders could be an attempt to intimidate CPI(M) workers with the purpose of keeping them away from campaigning for the coming elections, party leaders have pointed out.

Processions were taken out in the districts and meetings organised by the CPI(M) during the day in protest against the killings.

Party leaders vowed that extremist activity in the region would be countered politically, even as the State police launched a massive combing operation in the region in search of the assailants.

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