Tide turns in Lalgarh,CPM men shoot 7 villagers

This morning,the armed CPM cadres called a meeting which all the villagers were dictated to attend. After the meeting started,they gave a mandate asking the villagers to either abide by their orders or die.

“At the meeting,the leader of the armed cadres fired two rounds in the air. We were agitated and decided not to silently bear the torture. Our men started pelting stones at them and ransacked the camps. At this,they opened random fire at us. The villagers started running here and there. In front of my eyes,at least 30 people fell on the ground. The cadres fled towards the Birkar forest,” said a villager of Netai village pleading anonymity.

Around 22 armed CPM cadres were present in the camp with improvised and sophisticated arms,said the villagers. Significantly,nobody from the CRPF camp in Lalgarh,which is only 4 km from the village,turned up until the cadres left it. Manoj Verma,SP,West Midnapore said,“We have recovered seven bodies as of now. Around 15 people received critical bullet injuries. We have started probe into the matter. However,from the preliminary investigations,it seems it was a political clash. Two groups indulged into a violent clash and both sides fired at each other.”

He further said,“Our forces reached the spot soon after the incident. When the incident took place,our forces were not in the camp as they were out for operation. After they reached the camp,they were sent to the spot.”

Subhendu Adhikari,Trinamool MP and Mamata’s pointsman,reached the spot in the evening and Partho Chatterjee,the leader of the Opposition reached late in the evening. Banerjee who held a rally in the city today started for Lalgarh till the last reports came in. However,soon after the incident,Banerjee sent a fax to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram informing him about the incident,said Mukul Roy of Trinamool.

Hospital sources said a woman identified as Phoolkumari Maity and one Sourab Ghorui died while being taken to hospital and Dhruba Goswami and Anup Sen succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Three persons — Shambhunath Ghorui,Dhiren Sen and Babul Patro — died on the spot. “Even though,we are yet to ascertain the political affiliation of the victims,the villagers claimed that two of the deceased were CPM supports and three were TMC supporters. The rest were common villagers,” said a senior police officer.

Surajeet Kar Purakyestha,ADG,Law and Order,said: “We have received reports that six persons died and 19 people are injured. Four of them are critical while one villager has been shifted to Kolkata. A landmine and eight empty cartridges were recovered from the spot. We are yet to identify who fired at whom. However,certainly there were arms in the possession of the miscreants as several people were killed and several others received bullet injuries.”

According to the Central IB report,there are around 60 camps of armed CPM cadres in West Midnapore while the TMC has set up around 20 camps in areas including Salboni and Pirakata in the district.

Protesting against the incident,Congress and SUCI have called for a 12-hour strike in East and West Midnapore tomorrow while CPM has called for a “Black day” tomorrow and TMC has declared two-hour blockade in the city.

Biman Bose,Left Front chairman said in a statement: “The attack was pre-planned by the Maoists and TMC on innocent villagers for which six priceless lives were lost.”

Everyday begins and ends with violence: Governor

Expressing serious concern about the situation in the state,West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan described the Lalgarh violence as an incident of sorrow and shame. “For sometime now reports have been appearing almost daily in the media about political violence from across the state. With unfailing regularity each day begins and ends with news of political clashes. Today’s carnage in Lalgarh has claimed seven lives with more than a dozen seriously wounded. Not even mothers and daughters have been spared. For our state it is a day of sorrow and shame,” he said. ENS

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