By IANS,
Kolkata : Suspected Maoists shot dead three people, including two cousins, and wounded a police constable by triggering a landmine in West Midnapore district Friday, police said.
The three victims, all members of a resistance forum against the ultras in the Lalgarh belt of West Bengal, were abducted from their house under the Belpahari police station area Thursday.
The bodies of Badri Soren, Nimai Singha and Phani Singha were found in the Shimulpal area Friday, said an officer at the state police control room here.
An official said Phani and Nimai, both in their 30s, were cousins and former members of the Communist Party of India-Maoist but were now with the resistance forum against the rebels.
Police constable Arun Bhuniya was injured when the Maoists triggered a landmine near the Ramgarh outpost of Lalgarh police station Friday afternoon.
“The incident happened as the police party was returning after patrolling a jungle near the spot. The directional landmine planted by the Left-wing extremists went off injuring Bhuniya, who has been hospitalised,” another police officer told IANS.
Continuing their violent activities, the radical Leftists burnt a truck and a car on National Highway-6 in the Lodahshuli jungles. “A 1,000-strong mob comprising Maoists and the tribal People’s Committee Against Police atrocities (PCAPA) backed by the rebels detained the two vehicles and set them afire after asking the occupants to alight,” the police officer said.
Police later reached the spot and cordoned it off. A hunt is on to nab the culprits.
The PCAPA has called a five-day shutdown that began Tuesday in the forest lands of the three districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, demanding a 15-day halt to the anti-Maoist operations in view of the harvesting season.
Violence has flared up in the Lalgarh belt, about 200 km west of this metropolis, despite stepped up security in view of the Dec 2-8 ‘foundation week’ being observed by the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist).
The state government began a massive security operation with central paramilitary troopers and armed policemen against the Leftwing extremists in and around Lalgarh June 18.
The Maoists are active in areas under 30 police stations in three western districts – West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia – of the state.