Intolerance and Inefficiency doubled up Maoist problem in West Bengal, India

FIGHT AGAINST THE RED BRIGADE

Joint forces step up operation, interlocutors offer to resign

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 17.11.11

Kolkata/Midnapore: With the government-appointed interlocutors writing to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday and offering to step down from their role, the stage is set for full-scale offensive against Maoists. 
    DGP Naparajit Mukherjee made it clear that the government was in no mood to take things lying down. “Criminal acts have to stop. Police are responsible for stopping these acts like killing, extortion of money, felling of trees, and police have to enforce the law. They (Maoists) can still surrender arms and hold talks, but the killings have to certainly stop,” the DGP told reporters at Writers’ Buildings. The interlocutors perhaps sensed this. “Now it’s a war-like situation. We think we are no more required. So we wrote to CM and requested her to relinquish us,” said Choton Das, an interlocutor. 
    Meanwhile, joint forces operation continued in full-swing across Jangalmahal. Intensive combing operations continued in Purulia for the second day in a row. Officers admitted that they had fired more than 2200 rounds. IGP (Western Range) Gangeswar Singh, their CRPF counterparts and Manoj Verma, SP, Counter Insurgency Force (CIF) chalked out a strategy in a meeting at Purulia. Raids and 
patrols were increased. During the day, more than 200 CRPF jawans combed the forests of Purnapani and Koromsole near Lalgarh in West Midnapore. 
    An intelligence tip-off on the possibility of the presence of Maoist squad leader Bikash prompted CRPF jawans to fire nearly hundred rounds in these jungles hemming Lalgarh. West Midnapore SP Praveen Tripathi claimed that Bikash had been camping there. “We have recovered two INSAS rifles, one SLR, one .303 rifle and five pistols from a Maoist hideout along with huge quantity of explosives,” said Tripathi. 
    The reworked blueprint suggests elite anti-Maoist force CIF will work together with CoBRA teams in ambushes. “Maoists are changing their strategy, accordingly we are also changing plans,” said the IGP (Western Range). 
    The DGP, however, said the operational details could not be shared and neither was he ready to say if more forces were being requisitioned from the Centre, but added that the main focus of the police was to arrest and prevent criminal activities. He said police were constantly recovering arms and ammunition — and had even done so on Wednesday. According to the DGP, if any person or organization kills, police are automatically responsible to take action, and even so in self defence.