Forces kill 2 Maoists in Jangalmahal
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 16.11.11
Manoj Verma, who had faced the Mamata government’s ire for alleged partisanship as West Midnapore SP under Left rule, led the operation after being made SP, Counter Insurgency Force, on Monday
Purulia/Kolkata: A day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s go-ahead to the joint forces to flush out Maoists from Jangalmahal, two guerrilla squad members were gunned down in Purulia on Monday night not far from where two Trinamool Congress supporters had been murdered hours before.
Two jawans of the Naga battalion were injured the nightlong operation.
As joint forces fanned out across Jangalmahal, the person who led it in Purulia was none other than Manoj Verma, appointed on Monday night itself as SP, Counter Insurgency Force.
Verma, formerly the West Midnapore SP, was among the first to face the ire of the Mamata-led government for allegedly playing a partisan role during joint forces operations under Left rule.
The combing operations led to the recovery of two pistols, an automatic gun, a .303 police rifle and a double-barrel gun with nearly 150 rounds of cartridge lying beside the bullet-ridden bodies of Maoists Suresh and Biren.
In West Midnapore, explosives were recovered from Lalgarh’s Bonisole forest. Two IEDs and 150 automatic-rifle cartridges were also found in Salboni and the forests hemming Midnapore.
With Mamata clearly indicating action would be initiated against Maoist sympathizers in Kolkata, particularly two Jadavpur University professors, a government employee quartet in Behala and an employee union member at Writers’ Buildings, intelligence gathering was stepped up in the city.
Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force will lead the city operations, with intelligence inputs from the Counter-Insurgency Force (CIF) and its own intelligence wing, the Special Branch. Also under the scanner are a students’ union, an employees’ union in Haldia and a few frontal brigades, including Matangini ‘Brigade’, dubbed ‘demonic brigade’ by the CM herself.
Mamata also sought a detailed report from the chief secretary on the logistics that would be required by the police for an all-out offensive. Five members, including two girls of the United Students Democratic Front, were detained from Nandan premises on Tuesday evening. They were protesting against the police’s efforts to gag them under the guise of the anti-Maoist operations.
In Purulia, security forces had specific information on Sunday that a group of rebels may scale down the Ayodhya hills. Late in the afternoon, two assault teams of Naga and CoBRA jawans marched deep into the forest to intercept the Maoist squad.
A jawan injured in the gunbattle with Maoists in Purulia on Tuesday
Purulia/Kolkata: A dozen armed guerrillas, with better knowledge of the terrain, dodged the teams and sneaked into Khuntar — a forest hamlet — and stormed Trinamool activist Rajen Singh Sardar’s house, killing his father and brother (a Tisco security guard).
Rajen, who had quit a Maoist forum to join a Trinamool-led anti-Maoist forum, hardly stayed home due to threats on his life. On Monday evening, Rajen was to arrive home to attend the tribal Sahrai festival. He had a narrow escape and informed the police. But by then the Maoists had melted into the dense woods.
Around 2km from Khuntar, security forces spotted the Maoist squad. “It was around 7 pm when the firing begun. Till morning, for more than 24 hours the gunfight continued leaving two Maoists dead and two Naga jawans critically injured,” said Gangeswar Singh, IG Western Zone. Rajen claimed he had managed to identify Maoist leader Tarit, alias Ranjit Pal, who was leading the squad. “The rebels have a platoon in Ayodhya hills, which is divided into three sections. Ranjit is in charge of the platoon. In recent months, several youths were recruited and a few joined the platoon from Jharkhand,” said a police officer.
This belt in Ghatbera-Kheroa has been a Maoist stronghold for the past few years. In 2009, the Maoists formed the Adibasi Mulabasi Committee and some anti-Left parties merged with it.
Aghor Hembram, the committee’s convenor, joined Trinamool Congress after the party came to power. Rajen followed him to Trinamool. They later formed a vigilante group to resist the red brigade. Union minister Mukul Roy and Tamluk MP Subhendu Adhikary will reach Balarampur on Wednesday and bring the bodies to Rajen’s family in Kolkata where the Trinamool leadership — including chief minister Mamata Banerjee — is expected to be present.
| BISWANATH ROY16.11.11 | |
Khuntar (Purulia), Nov. 15: Two Maoists were killed in the first full-scale assault by joint forces since the Mamata Banerjee government took over, mirroring the dramatic escalation in hostilities a few hours after the rebels ended a ceasefire and provoked the chief minister to resume operations. The joint forces have now laid siege to the Ayodhya Hills, a rebel haven whose forest offers safe passage to Jharkhand and cover for supplies from hideouts there. “We have blocked the way to the Ayodhya Hills. We want to cut off supplies to the squad. We are trying not to let them slip back in the dense forest,” an officer said. The operation, which took place when the security forces pursued suspected Maoists who killed two Trinamul supporters last night, also served to underscore how the rebels, who were once on the back foot, are no longer so. Despite losing two fighters — the first confirmed rebel casualties since the new government took over — the Maoists opened fire on the forces at daybreak during a combing operation. Last night’s encounter was a throwback to the tense weeks of June 2009 when the joint operations were launched to establish a circle of domination in Lalgarh and other Maoist-affected areas. Two members of the Maoist action squad team that shot dead two Trinamul supporters in Khuntar village last night were gunned down during the two-hour encounter from 11pm. The bodies of the two Maoists in their mid-thirties, identified by police as Biren and Subal, were found in the Duarshini forest in the foothills of Ayodhya Hills this morning. “Biren was Bidyut Singh Sardar, who hailed from Ghatbera near Khuntar. Subal was from Jharkhand and we are trying to get more details about him,” a police officer said. During the combing operation that included about 32 COBRA commandos this morning, the Maoists opened fire and injured two jawans belonging to the India Reserve Battalion of Nagaland. Masi Byco and Karket Suni were rushed to Purulia district hospital and later taken to a private hospital in Ranchi. The initial plan was to fly the jawans to Calcutta, about 300km away, but rain forced the police to take them to Ranchi by road, a police officer said. “We found two rifles, a double-barrel gun and a 9mm pistol within yards from the bodies of the two rebels. We brought in sniffer dogs to look for injured Maoists and stumbled upon half-a-dozen ladies’ sandals and dupattas,” the officer said. Inspector-general of police (western range) G. Singh, who visited the encounter site this morning, said the Maoists belonged to the Ayodhya Hills squad and were led by Ranjit Pal. “The squad had about 15 persons and at least five were women. During the encounter, the joint forces used mortars and we suspect that a number of Maoists were injured,” Singh said. Another officer said that after some villagers had informed the police of the Maoist attack at Khuntar last night, two teams rushed to the place. “One team of joint forces went from a camp about 3km from Khuntar and another went from the Balarampur police station. There were about 300 personnel in all. We knew that the Maoists would have to cross the Duarshini forest to reach the Ayodhya hills. So the forces divided themselves into two groups and began moving towards the forest guarding both the left and the right flanks. Soon after entering the forest, shots were fired at us. An encounter followed,” the officer said. | |
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