People's Democracy

Maoists, Trinamulis Kill Two CPI(M) Workers

B Prasant

Within the space of less-than-a-week, two CPI(M) workers died the death of a martyr.  Comrade Biswanath Mandi (45) of Goaltore in Midnapore west had been a target of Maoists for a pretty long period of time now.  In making Comrade Biswanath their intended victim, the Maoists received guidance and information from not only the Jharkhandis but also from what little remains of the BJP in the locale.  The operation was under the overall command of the Trinamul Congress leadership of the area.

Why was Comrade Biswanath shot and killed?  The answer needs to be sought in the recently conducted Panchayat elections - and the results obtained in the Midnapore west district.  In organising the sweeping victory of the CPI(M) here, comrades like Biswanath who was a kisan leader of great popularity besides being a politically prudent member of the Goaltore zonal committee of the CPI(M) had worked day-and-night, going to the people from one village to the next hamlet, and telling them why they should vote for the LF candidates, and not listen to the utter lies of the Bengal opposition.  

That was the time when the Maoists first issued a death threat to comrades like Biswanath for having ensured that both the Maoists and the Jharkhandis were made to go on a run with their arms and ammunitions from Goaltore and its surroundings in the face of popular wrath, when the polls came and went.

Comrade Biswanath was murdered in the cowardly manner that one has by now come to typify as a 'Maoist action'.  He was killed in his sleep. Having spent the day in the field busy harvesting the boro crop, and after attending an AIKS meeting, a tired Comrade Biswanath had laid himself down in the open courtyard of his small hutment and had almost immediately fallen asleep in the cooling breeze of the late evening.  

COWARDICE

Two persons crept up to him -- darkness had by then, descended - and one of them killed the slumbering comrade with single shot at a close and direct range under his right eyelid, instantly killing him.  They also shot him in the chest. As the duo ran away, they allegedly shouted 'you shall no longer organise votes for the CPI(M).'  Both were later identified as Maoists killers.

It was Comrade Biswanath's 70-year-old mother Phulmoni who heard the muffled noise, came stumbling out of the hutment, and found that his only son had been martyred.  Comrade Biswanath also leaves behind his wife, and their two sons.  Biman Basu, Bengal secretary of the CPI(M) has condemned the cowardly act and has called upon the CPI(M) workers of the area to maintain vigil.

If Comrade Biswanath was martyred while he was at his most defenceless, Comrade Debabrata Pramanick, a young member of the CPI(M) and an SFI leader embraced martyrdom while resisting bare-handed a dozen-odd armed Trinamuli goons who attacked the Natkathigachh office of the CPI(M) in Tufanganj up in Coochbehar in north Bengal. A meeting of the local committee of the CPI(M) was in progress when Comrade Debabrata, a young man of barely twenty summers, saw 20-odd armed Trinamuli hoodlums making a stealthy approach. Comrade Debabrata rushed to the door and stood guard valiantly.

He was cruelly cut down in a hail of bullets and hacked at and then had his head smashed in for good measure by the mindless villains, hirelings all of the local urban stakes. The people of the area came rushing out, engaged the armed goons in a confrontation, and when a large contingent of the police arrived, they too, had to dodge and duck from the fleeing Trinamuli goons who kept firing back.  

In embracing a cruel death, Comrade Debabrata saved the CPI(M) local committee office from being put to the torch, and had arson been indulged in, the lives of the CPI(M) leadership inside would have been in terrible danger what with the office having a single entrance-exit.  The local administration has clamped down section 144 of the Cr Pc in the area.