People's Democracy

TWO chia kaman mazdoors (tea garden workers) were killed in the most brutal fashion imaginable at Chandradhura in the Rambuk tea plantation of Darjeeling district on Saturday, March 3.

Comrade Pilla Bahadur Rai (65) and his son Comrade Pradip Rai (42) were first shot and then hacked to death when goons patronised by D R Rai of the CPRM launched an armed assault on a meeting of the CITU-affiliated Chia Kaman Mazdoor Union at Rambuk. Both Comrades Pilla Bahadur and Pradip were members of the CPI(M).

The union meeting carried on late into the evening. In the cover of darkness, a dozen-odd gangsters, equipped with guns and khukris, swooped down on the workers and started to shoot indiscriminately. Those who fell were slashed with khukris. Comrades Pilla Bahadur and Pradip had their throats slit.

In the attack which lasted only a few minutes, workers like Devendra Khaling, Romit Chhetri, Devendra Chhetri and Man Bahadur Gurung had to be admitted to the Darjeeling Sadar Hospital in a critical condition.

Protests meetings were held on March 3 and 4 in many places in the hill areas of the district to condemn of the murderous assault. A Protest Day was observed throughout Darjeeling district on March 4.

COMRADE Pranab Baidya, a CPI(M) worker, was killed on March 3, by anti-socials in the pay of the SUCI at Jalaberia village under Kultali in South 24 Parganas. The armed hoods launched an attack on Comrade Pranab’s hutment, situated in an isolated spot of the Jalaberia hamlet, late into the night of March 3. Having broken down the flimsy entrance, they barged into the single room inside and repeatedly stabbed Comrade Pranab with spears till he died in a pool of blood. No arrest has been made to date although the district police officials claimed to have made some breakthrough in the task of nabbing the killers.