KOLKATA:The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has warned the West Bengal government of possible attacks by the Maoist ultras in the run-up to the Independence Day and asked it to beef up security across the state.
After the report from the Central intelligence agencies reached State Secretariat, Nabanna, state Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee and DGP G M P Reddy held a high-level meeting and directed senior police officials to take adequate measures to combat the possible Maoist attacks.
The IB report stated that at least 60 youth, including women from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand had joined the military wing of the Maoists and they had been divided into squads comprising 10 members.
On August 2, the Maoists had infiltrated into Belpahari in the state’s Jangalmahal region that comprises four districts of Western Bengal.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before leaving for New Delhi, without naming the Maoists admitted that a report had been received about a political party trying to resort to ‘extremist activities in the state’.
The IB on the basis of ‘specific intelligence inputs’ came to know that on August 2 night, the Maoists held a meeting at Gurabandha in Jharkhand near the West Bengal border. The meeting was chaired by the recently appointed West Bengal CPI (Maoist) state secretary Akash and was attended by many other senior Maoist leaders. And the meeting had vowed to avenge the death of Manjulla Koteswara Rao, who was popularly known as Kishenji and organise large-scale attacks in the state, particularly at Belpahari in West Mindapore district.
Last month at a public meeting at Belpahari in West Midnapore district, Mamata’s Lok Sabha MP nephew Abhisekh Banerjee had proudly declared, “Earlier everyday in Jangalmahal people were being killed. During the last four years there was only one murder. Mamata’s Government by killing Kishenji has proved that the people have the last word.”
Kishenji, a top CPI(Maoist) leader from Andhra Pradesh, who was in charge of West Bengal and a member of the party’s central military commission, was killed in an encounter at Burisol village in the same district on November 11, 2011, five months after Mamata stormed to power. Incidentally, Kishenji had appealed to the people to vote for the TMC and against the CPM-led Left Front Government.
The IB report stated that the Maoists’ first target was Belpahari and for the last one month their cadre could be seen entering the state from Jharkhand and secretly campaigning among the villagers.