COWARDLY ACT OF MAOISTS

Statewide Protests Against Killing Of Two CPI(M) Workers

 B Prasant

STATEWIDE protest programmes expressed the fury and disgust of the mass of the people of Bengal at the cowardly murder of two CPI(M) workers in the two adjoining ‘red clay districts of Purulia and Bankura on March 5, 2006.

The Maoists killers, armed to the teeth with automatic and semi-automatic weapons, pounced on Comrade Kartick Singh and Comrade Gatilal Tudu deep into the night.  In each of the incident, the Maoists left leaflets that said that CPI(M) workers ‘would continued to be killed unless and until they quit the CPI(M) and join us.’

Party state secretary, Anil Biswas, has condemned the incidents and has said that come the polls, such acts of cowardice would be on the rise.  He added to say that the people would resist the armed threat of the Maoists for poll boycott.

In the Purulia incident, the Maoist miscreants raided the house of CPI(M) worker Bhim Soren at Lalgarh, where Comrade Kartick Singh, a khet mazdoor, was engaged in a meeting with the nine-member self-help group he coordinated.  Bhim Soren is a member of the Lalgarh local committee of the CPI(M).

The Maoists, who wore dresses resembling Army fatigues, carried automatic weapons each, and they forced the nine CPI(M) workers inside a vehicle that they had brought and drove away towards the nearby jungle.

There they pulled out the CPI(M) workers, tied them up, threw them to the ground, and then singled out Comrade Kartick Singh.  They dragged Comrade Kartick to a tree, tied him up to the trunk and after smashing away at his head and body with gun butts, all the while shouting anti-CPI(M) slogans, shot him four times, in the chest and then in the head.

Comrade Kartick Singh (38) leaves behind his wife, Bidu and two children, Uma aged seven, and Subhendu aged two.

The group of killers that included several Hindi-speaking people, including a woman who was apparently the leader, had come from across the border from Jharkhand whence they made good their escape after leaving the area strewn with leaflets that called upon all CPI(M) workers to ‘quit the Party and to join the Maoists.’

Nearby Bankura saw another dastardly Maoists attack.  At the village of Satnala at Barikul, Comrade Gatilal Tudu accompanied by another CPI(M) worker, Sanjoy Mandi, was going to his hutment when he was accosted by eight slogan-shouting Maoists who slashed away at him with sharp weapons.  Comrade Gatilal collapsed in a pool of blood with deep head wounds and died on the spot. 

Sanjoy Mandi who attempted to foil the Maoists was felled with deep cuts on the head and chest.  Villagers rushed out on hearing Mandi’s groans and cries for help, and found that the Maoists had fled the scene, leaving behind leaflets containing warnings to villagers to ‘quit the CPI(M) or else.’  Sanjoy Mandi struggles with death at the Ranibandh hospital in Bankura town. 

The large turnout at the election rallies organised by the CPI(M) in the past week must have unnerved the Maoists enough to launch a murderous attack on CPI(M) workers.  Until date, more than 20 CPI(M) workers have been killed by the Maoists in the three western districts of Midnapore west, Bankura, and Purulia.