People's Democracy

IN a brutal attack reminiscent of the terror-filled decade of the 1970s, naxalites belonging to the People’s War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) hacked to death Comrade Rampada Majhi (50), secretary of the CPI(M)’s Rudhra local committee late into February 12 night at Badhoyala village under the Ranibandh police station in the district of Bankura. Condemning the murder, CPI(M)’s West Bengal state secretary Anil Biswas called upon the naxalite elements to desist from such heinous acts in future.

According to eyewitnesses, a group of 60-odd armed men swooped down on Comrade Rampada’s hutment and one group proceeded to climb onto the tiled roof, while the other group broke open the door. The first group quickly broke through the tiles and started shooting at the comrade and his wife Arati. The main group then hit Comrade Rampada over the head with a heavy blunt weapon, and dragged him and his wife to an isolated spot nearby.

Then, in a show of inhuman cruelty, the assailants repeatedly struck at Comrade Rampada with sickles and swords, hacking him till he became a bloodied pulp. Arati, too, was critically injured when she started to grapple with the murderers. The attackers then made good their escape in the dark of the night into the jungles and mountains nearby.

Eyewitnesses told this correspondent that no one dared come out during the attack because some of the attackers had already started indiscriminately shooting around while shouting out warnings about the dire consequences for anyone who would dare to come to the help of Comrade Rampada and his wife.

After the villagers did manage to emerge from their hutments and followed the blood trail to the spot where comrade was brutally done to death, they rescued a critically wounded Arati and had her admitted to Ranibandh hospital.

Comrade Rampada Majhi’s last remains were consigned to flames amidst a vast gathering of grief-ridden people that had come to pay their last respects to their beloved leader.

Protest marches were taken out the next day in Ranibandh area to register popular anger at the incident.

Comrade Rampada Majhi is the fourth CPI(M) worker to be killed in the western part of Bengal in recent times. On February 11, goons belonging to the Jharkhand Party killed Comrade Bharat Mondal, a teacher and CPI(M) member, and protest day was observed throughout the east Midnapore on February 12 at the call of the district unit of the CPI(M). Earlier in the year, the People’s War Group had murdered CPI(M)’s Salboni local committee member Comrade Anil Mahato and Belpahari local committee secretary Comrade Sudhir Singh in western Midnapore.

Speaking to the media at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in Kolkata, Anil Biswas asked the people of the Midnapore and Bankura districts to be careful about acts of provocation while uniting to stand firm and repel attacks on the CPI(M) and the Left Front workers. Biswas warned the PWG and MCC to desist from carrying out acts of assassination or to be prepared to face the consequences. (INN)