The Hindu : National : PSBJC relaxes bandh for a week

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PSBJC relaxes bandh for a week

Raktima Bose

Prolonged protest may hurt Durga Puja business

Chhatradhar Mahato denies public support is ebbing
CPI(M) leader fired at in Lalgarh village

KOLKATA: Fourteen days into a bandh in West Bengal districts, the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PSBJC) on Monday announced that the protest would be relaxed for a week from Tuesday for the “convenience of local people.”

Speaking to The Hindu over telephone from his hideout in the Lalgarh area of Paschim Medinipur district, PSBJC convener Chhatradhar Mahato said: “Though we are receiving support from people of all sections in our protest against the presence of security forces in the region, we felt that the indefinite closure is affecting them, especially daily-wage workers.”

Denying that the seven-day relaxation was the result of diminishing public backing, he said had there been lack of local support, the bandh would not have been “peaceful” so far.

“Even other political parties are openly supporting our cause. They, too, are opposing the security force’s presence in the region and their atrocities,” Mr. Mahato said.

With less than a month left for the State’s largest festival, Durga Puja, to arrive, it is feared that resumption of the bandh after September 7 would severely affect the festival-time business in Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia districts.

Meanwhile, suspected Maoists chased and shot at a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader on Sunday evening while he was returning home from the market. He has been admitted to the Bankura general Hospital, where his condition is reported to be stable.

Police sources said Ujjwal Kundu (55), member of the party’s Kantapahari branch committee, had fled his house at Papuria village near Kantapahari, seven km from Lalgarh, following the spate of violence in November 2008 and returned only after the security forces reclaimed the region from the Maoists. He, however, continued to receive threats.

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