People's Democracy

IN a dastardly night attack, armed goons of the Trinamul Congress and the People’s War Group (PWG) brutally murdered the ailing and aged mother, the wife and the sleeping 3 years old child of CPI(M) worker Sristidhar Mahato at the Jamirgot village in the Salboni area of Midnapore West on May 31. Sristidhar himself managed to escape even though injured and was able drag away his eldest daughter aged 13.

The attackers came in the dark of the night and forced their way inside the hut where the Mahato family lived. On finding Sristidhar’s wife Ichhamati (32) and her sleeping daughter Priyanka (3), the murderers hacked them to death and then proceeded to fatally stab Sristidhar’s 65 years mother. As soon as Sristidhar came out on hearing the commotion, the attackers slashed at him. Bleeding from wounds, Sristidhar nevertheless managed to drag himself and his elder daughter Binapani away from the killers’ knives.

By then, the villagers had rushed in and the assassins exploded several bombs and escaped into the thickly wooded area nearby. There was a 12-hour bandh in the Salboni area on June 1 to protest against this dastardly incident. State CPI(M) secretary Anil Biswas said political desperation has brought together the Trinamul Congress and the PWG to the path of murder and mayhem. Biswas exhorted upon all democratic-minded people to unite in condemning the incident, and called for an early apprehension of the murderers.