Six villagers shot dead in Lalgarh

“There is an woman among the dead. The injured have been rushed to hospital where the condition of five is serious,” he said.

The house owner was identified as Ranjit Dandapat.

The dead were Phulkumari Maity,Sourav Ghorai,Shyamananda Ghorui,Kablu Patra,Dhiren Sen and Dhruba Goswami,he said.

Asked whether the house was being used as a CPI-M armed camp,the officer said,”We are investigating it.”

When contacted,Lalgarh CPI-M leader Chandi Karan said,”I am in West Midnapore on a personal visit and cannot say anything.”

Lalgarh was ‘recaptured’ by the CPI-M on October 9 last year after they fled the area in the wake of the Maoists targeting them after the launch of anti-Naxal operations in June 19,1999.

Union Home Minister P Chidamabaram had written to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on December 22 questioning the utility of central forces in anti-Maoist operations when armed CPI-M cadres had taken the responsibility of law and order on themselves.

This had led to an exchange of letters between them,with Bhattacharjee objecting to the use of the word ‘harmad’ to describe CPI-M activists,though remaining silent on the question of armed CPI-M camps in West Midnapore district.