People's Democracy

ARMED hit men of the People’s War Group (PWG) brutally gunned down comrade Ajit Ghosh near the Bulanpur village at Chandrakona Road in Midnapore west late in the afternoon of July 9. Comrade Ajit (50) was a schoolteacher and a member of the Goaltore local committee of the CPI (M). Earlier, too, he had been targeted by the PWG albeit without success.

On reaching the spot on Chandrakona Road, one came across several pools of dried blood where comrade Ghosh, unarmed, had bravely faced the killers who had then proceeded to drill into him a hail of bullets from sophisticated semi-automatic weapons.

We spoke to the cowherds who were tending cattle in the nearby farmland. They related how comrade Ghosh and his state government-provided armed escort, constable Rajkumar Sardar were accosted by dozen-odd armed men in police uniforms with automatic weapons at the ready as they travelled down the Chandra Kona road and had just passed the Bulanpur hamlet.

On being challenged by constable Rajkumar, the killers opened fire; both comrade Ajit and Rajkumar were hit. Rajkumar fired back from his police-issue rifle and comrade Ajit stood by his side even as large calibre 7.67 mm bullets thudded into them.

In the unequal battle, both comrade Ajit and his escort died soon after with multiple bullet wounds in the head and the chest. The cowherds who were yet to recover from shock at seeing their beloved leader brutally gunned down, told us that the whole grisly episode was over in a matter of minutes and the assassins quickly drove off in the motorcycles in which they had come to do the evil deed.

The PWG has gone on the warpath against CPI (M) workers for over two years now. With assistance from the likes of the Trinamul Congress, they have already murdered several CPI (M) workers including comrades Sudhir Singh Sardar, Tapan Ghosh, Anil Mahato, and Rampada Majhi. Earlier, they had assassinated CPI (M) leader, comrade Sibaram Satpathy in an attack that was similar to that which killed comrade Ajit Ghosh.

In a statement issued from Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, state secretariat member of the Bengal unit of the CPI (M) and veteran kisan leader, Benoy Konar has condemned the killing. Konar has also flayed the policy of assassination and terror being indulged in by the PWG and its cohorts.

In the meanwhile a section of the Kolkata media has chosen to indulge in biased propaganda against the CPI(M) led Left Front government. The point of their grouse apparently emanates from the arrest by the state police of a few persons who have been found to have links with the PWG murder spree and who are also alleged to have received large amounts of funds from across the border.

In his statement, Benoy Konar has clearly noted that in Bengal under the Left Front government, the democratic right of every citizen and every organisation was safe and secure. It has been the Left Front and the Left Front government, which have carefully restored the democratic ambience in the wake of the semi-fascist terror of the years between 1972 and 1977, in particular. A coterie of reactionary forces has come together of late to try to organise assaults on the democratic conditions prevailing in the state. Konar has also called upon the state administration to initiate appropriate measures against these miscreants.

Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee while condemning the dastardly murder has declared that he would speak to the union home ministry regarding the support that groups like the PWG are in receipt of from across the state border. Elsewhere, the state police have started to inquire into the alleged suicide of a person in Kolkata who was suspected to have links with the People’s War Group.