Security forces reach Lalgarh, partial victory, say police

Saibal Gupta

Lalgarh (WB) Jun 20 (PTI) Security forces on Saturday
stormed Lalgarh and without much resistance reclaimed the
police station under control of Maoists, who had cut off the
area in West Midnapore district for eight months, in India's
eastern state of West Bengal.

"It is a partial victory. The hundred per cent
operation is yet to be completed. It may take days, even weeks
to do this," DIG (Midnapore Range) Praveen Kumar told an
impromptu press conference outside the Lalgarh police station.

An anti-landmine vehicle cleared the path for the
security personnel who reached the police station to take
charge of the building.

Central forces, comprising men from Border Security
Force (BSF)and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), fanned out
in the forests for combing operations against the Maoists. The
securitymen donning camouflage and bullet-proof vests
sanitised the five-km stretch of Jhitka jungle, a Maoist
area near here.

AK-47 and Insas rifle-toting securitymen came under
intermittent fire from Maoists at the Pingboni-Sarenga road
on Saturday, Superintendent of Police Burdwan Humayan Kabir
said adding two landmines planted on the road were defused.

Lalgarh police station was out of bounds since
November last year when tribals under the banner of People's
Committee Against Police Atrocities launched a boycott of
police to protest raids on their homes following a landmine
blast targeting Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee's
convoy.

"We have an agenda to establish the rule of the law.
Our next move will be to clear 42 villages in areas in Lalgarh
from the agitators," Kumar said.

Though it normally takes two hours to reach Lalgarh
from Midnapore, security forces took three days. "We moved
with caution. We took measures not to risk the lives of
ordinary people," Kumar said.

When the security forces were driving from Pingboni,
they were obstructed by a number of women. The forces were
moving cautiously for the last two days to avoid civilian
casualties, he said.

On areas declared 'liberated' by the agitators, he
said, "the rule of the law is everywhere. There is no legal
concept of a no-entry zone. No one is more powerful than the
government."

Asked about Chhatradhar Mahato, leader of the People's
Committee Against Police Atrocities spearheading the agitation
since November last year, Kumar said he would be arrested.

Firefights with the Maoists occurred at two places
between Pirakata and Bhimpur and near Pingboni last night with
the villagers fleeing to safety, police said.

The Maoists fired on the Lalgarh police station, with
the securitymen there firing back.

As the operation entered a crucial phase, West Bengal
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidamabaram in New
Delhi and apprised them of the situation in Lalgarh. PTI SAG
SKT
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