Security forces liberate 22 villages in Lalgarh

Amitava Roy

Lalgarh (WB), Jun 22 (PTI) Security forces conducting the
operation to liberate Lalgarh have cleared 22 of 42 villages
in the area of Maoist-backed tribal agitators and were further
consolidating their positions, officials said Monday.

The troops comprising the CRPF, BSF, IRB, State Armed
Police and the Eastern Frontier Rifles men were in full
control of the national highway connecting the district
headquarters with Lalgarh, a senior police officer said.

"Twenty of the 42 villages under the jurisdiction of the
Lalgarh police station have been cleared off agitators," he
said. The police station, which remained out of bounds since
November, was retaken on June 19.

All vehicles were being searched and people frisked.

Two forested areas on the highway connecting Midnapore
and Lalgarh -- Pirakata and Jhitka -- were sanitised.

Pickets of security forces have been set up all along the
highway, which was also being patrolled, he said.

The forces, which had launched the operation against the
Maoists on June 18, were yet to move out of Lalgarh, he said.

The security forces were camping in strength at Lalgarh
police station and nearby Bhimpur as also in various other
places, the officer said.

The next area of operation could be Ramgarh, where the
tribals under the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities
have felled trees and dug up roads, he said.

Meanwhile, the administration today gave six kg of rice
to each person who had fled after the security forces launched
operations to flush out Naxals from the area.

The rice was being given at the BDO's office in Lalgarh,
official sources said.

Officials said that besides rice, provisions were being
made for providing hot meals of khichri to the displaced
people.

Most of the people who had fled were living in jungles,
while around 900 were housed in relief camps opened Sunday by
the Trinamool Congress. PTI AMR
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