The ruling CPI(M)’s leaders in this remote hamlet — about 90 km from Bankura town — are running for cover after the killing of two partymen, including a zonal committee member, Raghunath Murmu (53), by suspected Maoists on Saturday evening. Such is their terror that even the police are paralysed. The officer-in-charge of Barikul police station, Prabal Sengupta, was killed when an electronic detonator laced with RDX blew up in his face when he was trying to open a bag left behind by the Maoists near the place where Murmu and another CPIM leader, Sanjay Mudi, were gunned down. ‘‘Why are they killing policemen? We are defenceless and just guinea pigs for the state government,’’ remarked an officer of Majgheria Police Camp. The low morale of the force can be gauged from the fact that the killings happened barely 200 metres from the camp but nobody went to the spot even an hour after the attack. Shaken CPI(M) leaders have fled the village and are staying in Ranibandh or Bankura with their families. The Barikul local committee party office is deserted — not one of its 11 members has turned up since Saturday. Speaking to The Indian Express, Sahdeb Mahato, a CPI(M) Ranibandh zonal committee member, said, ‘‘The Maoists are targeting local party leaders. They consider us enemies as we have been doing development work throughout south Bankura.’’ Chunaram Mahato, Ranibandh CPI(M) zonal committee’s general secretary, agrees. ‘‘It’s out of fear that our members are not coming to the party office. The Maoists have terrorised them.’’ However, contrary to the CPI(M) claims of development, the people of Majgheria and other adjoining villages, like Simlojhar, Taldanga and Satnala, located amidst dense forests, live in acute penury. About 70 per cent of them are below poverty line. The forest is their lifeline. Cutting wood and selling it is their main source of livelihood and only a few are engaged as daily labourers. There is no school or health centre in the area, and no drinking water either. ‘‘We are deprived of basic amenities. We have no option but to drink the filthy pond water,’’ said Chendra Pathar, who goes to the forest daily with his wife to cut wood. ‘‘If somebody falls sick, we have to go to Bankura or Ranibandh. Who can afford that?’’ He points to the electricity poles that were erected in the village in 2002, saying they are still waiting for the supply. The Maoists have struck a sympathetic chord. ‘‘They never harm us. Some of them come to our village and hold meetings. They are waging a war for a cause. We have nothing to do with them,’’ said Sukumar Toli. ‘‘There is no development work in the villages and the frustrated youths are being recruited by the Maoists. Unless the government solves the basic problems, things will go from bad to worse,’’ said a senior officer of Ranibandh police station. Besides the police stations, there are seven police camps in South Bankura, set up particularly for tackling the Maoist menace. The policemen stay in tents in the open. There are no telephones at the police stations or the camps and the only mode of communication is the wireless. ‘‘Even these are being intercepted by the Maoists. We are living in danger as they have got support from the villagers,’’ said Anil Chandra Ghosh, an inspector at Raniband police station. The SP, Bankura, admitted that the socio-economic conditions of the villagers needed to be improved. As for now, he has his job cut out: he has to track down the killers who have demoralised his force.
