Subhendu gives ultimatum to Maoists
Sujoy Khanra TNN 13.11.11
Trinamool MP Subhendu Adhikari at the rally at Kurasole on Saturday
Jhargram: Trinamool Congress revised its rally route in the wake of threats from Maoists, keeping party MP Subhendu Adhikari away from the forest roads at Jhargram on Saturday. Earlier during his meeting at Belpahari, Adhikari had announced to organize a rally from Aguiboni to Birihandi in the outskirts of Jhargram. A major portion of the scheduled route goes through the forest which earned notoriety for Maoist domination. In the past couple of days, four IEDs were recovered from the forest, which raised a major security threat. Police had reasons to believe that Maoists, who had asked people to boycott the Trinamool rally, may target Adhikari’s rally and on Saturday his route was cut short to avoid the forest.
Adhikari started his rally from Ektal village football ground at 1pm and walked around three kms to reach Kurasole where the meeting was held. He sounded a warning to Maoist leaders Akash and Bikash: “Either lay down arms or leave Bengal. If you continue the politics of violence, then like CPM leaders you all will be put behind bars.”
“Maoists are trying to terrorize people at gunpoint. To foil my meeting, they are planting land mines. But all these can’t resist people from joining our effort to restore peace,” said the Trinamool leader. Jhargram MLA and minister Sukumar Hansda, and two other party MLAs Churamoni Mahato and Srikanta Mahato were also present at the rally.
But their presence failed to convince villagers who did not dare to join the rally by defying the Maoist diktat. Nearly 700 additional security force led by Jhargram SP Gaurav Sharma escorted the leaders. Subhendu said that joint forces were no longer playing a partisan role.“People like Ashok Jiban (convener of Maoist-influenced mass organization) are spreading cooked-up stories of torture by joint forces,” said Subhendu.
Ashok Jiban, convener of Santras O Durnity Birodhi Mancha in Jangalmahal, alleged that Subhendu’s peace rally was nothing but an effort to dominate villages through Trinamool-led armed vigilant group. “Trinamool leaders mainly Nisith Mahato is threatening people and forcing them to join the rally,” alleged Ashok.
Meanwhile, West Midnapore police said that six single barrel guns and nearly 90 kg of explosives were recovered from two Maoist hideouts of Salboni after interrogating Maoist squad members, arrested on Friday. They were produced before the court on Saturday and remanded to police custody for ten days, said Midnapore SP Praveen Kumar Tripathi.
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