Maoist violence is going on unabated in West Bengal in spite of some success claimed by central government sponsored ambitious paramilitary action plan, “Operation Green Hunt”, lunched to flush out terrorist from the five most Maoist infested states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal and Chattisgarh
In a daring attack on Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp at Shilda- about 200km from state capital Calcutta- some 20 Maoist cadres including women activists stormed the EFR camp under cover of a brimming weekly village market and opened volley of fires on the unsuspecting EFR soldiers killing 21 on the spot and injuring many others. The Maoist guerillas set the camp on fire while retreating. The incident took place on the night of 15th Feb’2010.
A reinforcement from another nearby camp-about 9km from the affected camp- reached the attacked camp three hours later taking a forest rout in order to avoid mined road which would have otherwise taken less than 30 minutes to reach the spot.
Later in the night, the guerilla outfits ‘chief’, popularly known as ‘Kishenji’, warned more such attacks if the operation green hunt is not stopped immediately. He also appealed to the personnel of the paramilitary forces to leave the forest area or else resign their jobs if they cannot do this (cannot leave forests because of military rules) to save their own lives.
Ever since the Maoist flare up in
However it is irony of fate that in India, state opposition parties have always soft pedaled the internal terrorism to get political advantage. The rise of ULFA in Assam, ‘Bhindranwale’ in Punjab and now Maoist in West Bengal got the boost from opposition political parties keeping mum or sympathizing with the terrorists, although there can be no denial that most of the internal terrorism are also the results of neglect and deprivation of the poorest of the poor, particularly the Adivasis living in the forest.
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