The Hindu : National : Hunt on for Maoist leaders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
ePaper

National

National

Hunt on for Maoist leaders

Special Correspondent

Proof links them to recent violence

Explosive device found with Maoist ‘fingerprints’
Arrested persons confess to being trained by extremists

Kolkata: The State police are searching for “the main Maoist leaders” who, they believe, were behind the recent violence in Nandigram. There was tangible evidence of their presence there, State Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said here on Wednesday.

Personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force on patrol came across a powerful explosive device in Sonachura on Tuesday.

Subsequently three persons were arrested and they allegedly confessed they were trained by Maoists, Mr. Ray said. The device seized along with other ammunition was similar to the ones used by Maoists elsewhere in the country. Four persons were killed and 13 injured in the recent spell of violence.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the situation over the past months had turned “abnormal” with the infiltration of armed Maoists from Jharkhand. They had been building a militia in the area over the past two months, he said. According to him, they set up bunkers, planted mines and imparted training in the use of arms to some locals. Over the past few months “the Trinamool Congress had been repeatedly told to dissociate from the Maoists and not provide them shelter,” he said.

“Those belonging to the Trinamool Congress, the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh [Resistance against Eviction from Land] Committee which the party backs, and the Maoists had been creating violence in the area even though some people are trying to project that the recent violence was sparked off by supporters of the CPI(M),” the Chief Minister said.

Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi spoke to a few victims of the recent violence being treated in a city hospital when he went there to visit veteran All India Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National