Partial victory, say security forces

West Bengal police on Saturday claimed partial victory after the state police and central security forces reclaimed Lalgarh area cut off for eight months by Maoists. "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 here.

"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," he 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.
 
On the 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, the leader of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities spearheading the tribal agitation since November last year, Kumar said he would be arrested.