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Maoists dare police to arrest them

Kolkata: The Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PSBJC) leadership on Friday challenged the police to arrest their representatives who would be participating in Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's rally in Lalgarh on August 9 and warned that the local people would detain the policemen who attempt to do so.

The reaction comes following Director-General of Police Bhupinder Singh's statement on Thursday that any PSBJC member participating in the rally would be arrested from the rally premises.

Speaking to The Hindu over phone from an undisclosed location, PSBJC secretary Manoj Mahato said: “It is the ploy of the CPI (M) and the State administration to arrest people randomly at the venue, create chaos and then term the rally a failure. We announce that unless the police can show an arrest warrant, any attempt to arrest any PSBJC member will be met with mass resistance.”

Mr. Mahato threatened that local people would burn down all CPI (M) camps set up in the region for allegedly housing armed cadres unless they are withdrawn before August 9. He asserted that PSBJC representatives would participate in the apolitical rally against violence in spite of the repeated warnings of the police since it is “not illegal to join any neutral peace platform”.

Students intercepted

Meanwhile, the police intercepted seven vanloads of school children at Dahijuri who were on their way to Jhargram town to participate in a rally organised by the Maoists.

According to Jhargram district's Superintendent of Police Pravin Tripathi, the students who belonged to Ranarani School at Andharia alleged that some unidentified persons forced them to attend the rally and had also arranged for the vehicles.

“There were roughly 170 students along with their teachers. The police have seized the vehicles and arrested the drivers. We are also sending a report to the district's School Inspector against the teachers since they have violated the prohibitory orders ,” Mr. Tripathi said.

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