People's Democracy

MAOIST ASSASSINS STRIKE AGAIN:

THREE CPI(M) WORKERS KILLED IN BENGAL

MAOISTS along with Trinamul goons in one place and with BJP hoodlums in another killed three CPI(M) workers across the state in the first two days of the new year.

A Maoist hit squad armed with semi-automatic guns, self-loading rifles (SLRs), and sharp, cutting weapons fatally assaulted Comrade Ram Prasad Mondal, a member of the Doiyer Bazaar local committee of the CPI(M) in Nadia, and a teacher by profession, at 10.30 in the morning of January 2. 

State secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M), Biman Basu has denounced the killing strongly.  He also said that the fresh waves of attack on CPI(M) workers of late emanated from the anti-people and anti-poor Maoists and Naxalites because of the burgeoning unity of the rural people across the state over the recent months, in particular.  Larger democratic movements must be launched to render these forces of anarchy and terror immobilised and isolated from the masses.

The Nadia murderers were six in number: four barred the way of Comrade Ram Prasad, who was cycling out to attend his duties while two other struck him on the back of his head and neck from the rear.  As Comrade Ram Prasad slumped to the ground, the Naxalite killers pumped 26 bullets from semi-automatic rifles firing high-calibre cartridges into his thin body; Comrade Ram Prasad died on the spot before any help could arrive.

The local populace did rush out on hearing the rattle of the automatic weapons firing, but dared not chase the villains as they fired shots at them and ran away.  The Nadia CPI(M) leadership reports that this particular remote rural stretch, between Mathurapur and Chandpur, situated far away from both the two nearest police stations at Chapra and Kotwali have been utilised by the Maoists for some time now, to build underground networks of murder, terror, and fear. 

Certainly, they receive regular help, of logistics and of other sorts, from the local Panchayat run by the Trinamul Congress.  The recent increase in the strength and reach of the mass base of the CPI(M) made the Maoists and their mentors hit the panic button, and hence the fresh murder spree. 

Nadia district secretary of the CPI(M) Ashu Ghosh has condemned the killing and has called for vigilance against terror-tactics of the Maoists and the Trinamul Congress as the Bengal Panchayat polls approach.  Protest marches have been taken out at Chapra and the surrounding rural area at the behest of the CPI(M) to condemn the murder. 

IN BURDWAN

Another manifestation of the right-extreme left combination against the CPI(M) in Bengal was in evidence on the evening of the first of January of the New Year at the Koichar village at Mangolkote in the district of Burdwan.  Goons in the pay and protection of the BJP and killers swearing allegiance to a section of the local Naxalites combined to murder and in a most gruesome manner, Comrade Sisir Chatterjee, a member of the CPI(M)’s Bhagirathi-Ajoy zonal committee. Comrade Sisir, who was 58, and a teacher at a local primary school, leaves behind his wife and son.

The macabre murder occurred as Comrade Sisir was on his way back from the Koichar office of the CPI(M) to his modest residence Kanaidanga, riding pillion as he would usually do, to another CPI(M) worker who pedalled an ancient bicycle.  The lumpen assassins who lay in wait at a sharp bend where the bicycle had to slow down pounced on the two CPI(M) workers. 

Hit several times on the head, the bicyclist, Sukanta Ghosh started to stagger, and taking advantage of his daze, the killers dragged off, and kicked and pummelled Comrade Sisir on to the side of the road, and then severed his head with a blow from a sharp weapon.  They then ran away with the head, the entire grisly murder reminiscent of the Naxalite killings Kolkata witnessed during the 1970s, and left the headless body where Comrade Sisir fell.

Villagers rushed in at Sukanta’s crying out, and found before them the evidence of the gruesome deed.  The entire CPI(M) leadership of the zone went in soon after and a large procession was taken out to protest the gruesome murder.  Later they were joined by district-level CPI(M) leaders.  Throughout January 2, marches have been held all over Burdwan to condemn the killing.  Secretary of the Burdwan unit of the CPI(M) Amal Haldar has denounced the cowardly assassination and has recalled how two other CPI(M) workers were killed by the BJP, at nearly the same spot where Comrade Sisir fell, back in 1994.

Later the severed head of Comrade Sisir Chatterjee was discovered by villagers some considerable distance from where the dastardly murder by the Naxalite-BJP goons had taken place, mounted on a pole with Naxalite leaflets strewn around the place.

IN PURULIA

A killer squad of the Maoists from across Jharkhand entered the border village of Bersa in the region of Gerua in Purulia deep into the night of January 1, and raided the hutment of CPI(M) worker Comrade Pahalan Kumar. There were twenty heavily-armed killers in the dalam.  They broke through the flimsy doors of the hut, dragged out Comrade Pahalan, hit him on the head, bound him up hands and legs, and shot him several times on the head from point blank range. 

Following the dark deed, the Maoists then broke open the hutment of another CPI(M) worker, Dhruvalal Kumar, and found that he was not in.  By this time, the ensuing commotion and the constant barking of the village dogs had brought out the villagers with whatever they could lay their hands on as weapons of defence. The cowardly murderers were quick enough in giving the villagers the slip, however, and they proceeded to melt away into the dark and cold night, and possibly leaving for Jharkhand the way they had sneaked in, via the densely afforested Ajodhya hills.

A 12-hour bandh at the call of the CPI(M) was successfully observed in the area as a mark of protest against the Maoist killing.  One recalls that two CPI(M) workers, Comrades Bhagirath Karmakar and Sufal Mandi were killed by Maoists in Purulia during November last year.

(B P)