By IANS,
Lalgarh (West Bengal) : After reclaiming the Maoist den of Ramgarh, security forces were Sunday gathering intelligence inputs before launching an assault on the rebels’ remaining strongholds at Kantapahari in West Bengal.
“Our people need rest. We also have to plan out our next phase of action so as to prevent any casualty among the forces and the villagers who otherwise may get caught in the crossfire,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity Sunday.
A big joint team of central paramilitary troopers and West Bengal armed police Saturday secured Ramgarh – 22 km from here – after a 9-km march through dense forests from Goaltore near West Midnapore’s border with Bankura district.
There was some semblance of normalcy Sunday at Ramgarh, a village in the Lalgarh-headquartered Binpur-1 Community Development Block, as some shops opened and a few people began returning to their homes from where they had fled fearing bloodshed.
The two-day march to Ramgarh saw the forces defusing landmines, firing mortars and engaging in gunbattles with the leftwing extremists – who now appear to be on the backfoot with their area of operation shrinking by the day. The rebels had torched a police outpost and driven away the civil administration June 15.
“Now they have their backs to the wall. And that was precisely our plan from the outset. They can’t flee from the conflict zones for long, as their safe hideouts are becoming fewer and fewer. They have to fight us directly by coming out into the open,” said the officer on the 11th day of the massive operation launched by the state government to flush out the Maoist rebels from in and around this area – 200 km west of the state capital Kolkata.
The security forces believe that the ultras are likely to put op fierce resistance at Kantapahari – situated between Ramgarh in the north and Lalgarh in the south.
The security personnel will now also try to re-establish the state writ over Barapelia – the headquarters of the agitating Maoist-backed tribal body People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) – besides continuing the combing operations in the villages and jungles with the CRPF’s elite anti-Maoist force Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA).
Meanwhile, eight human rights activists seeking to come to Lalgarh, under the banner of the Fact Finding Committee of India, were arrested in the district headquarters Midnapore Saturday.
The activists, including documentary film maker Gopal Menon, Gana Pratirodh Mancha secretary Raja Sarkhel and Revolutionary Democratic Front general secretary Raj Kishore Singh, were later released after they gave a written undertaking that they would not go to Lalgarh, said Inspector General (Western Range) of state police Kuldip Singh.
Former Punjab police director general K.P.S. Gill also sought to come to Lalgarh to study the conflict zone, but was asked to return from Midnapore.
“We have advised him not go to the area where armed forces were moving,” said Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen.
“We have no problems if he goes to Midnapore. But we cannot allow him to venture into sensitive areas where prohibitory orders are in force,” said the home secretary.
When contacted by IANS, Gill refused to comment.
The PCAPA and the Maoists had since last November established virtual control over 42 villages in Lalgarh and surrounding areas where hundreds of Maoist extremists had virtually taken over the role of the state administration.
The troopers have already re-established the writ of the state in a majority of these villages.
Lalgarh has been on the boil since November when a landmine exploded on the route of the convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada.
Complaining of police atrocities after the blast, angry tribals backed by Maoists launched an agitation, virtually cutting off the area from the rest of West Midnapore district.
Maoists are active in areas under 21 police stations in the state’s three western districts – West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia.