Freed Maoists are establishing contact with their Indian counterparts
KOLKATA: The release of 200 Maoists by the Koirala-led government in Nepal has come as a fresh worry for the West Bengal government. The state government’s concern has heightened following telephone intercepts by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) revealing that Nepalese Maoists are once again beginning to establish links with their extremist comrades in Bengal.
The killing of Rabi Das, a CPI(M) leader in Belpahari in West Midnapore district, on Wednesday night has come as a chilling reminder to the state government that the Maoists are well entrenched to renew violence that had ebbed ahead of the recent state elections.
According to IB sources, tapped conversations of some international telephone calls indicated that Maoist leaders in Nepal and Bengal are attempting to coordinate a meeting somewhere in West Bengal, this month.
“During the course of the conversation, the West Bengal Maoist leaders were asked to interact with the Maoist groups in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh so that their leaders can also be present at the secret meeting. However, we are sure that they have still not been able to finalise a secure venue,” a senior IB official said on condition of anonymity.
The IB also fears more attacks by Maoists in West Bengal in districts like West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, with an aim to make their presence felt to the local people and administration.
Meanwhile, the state police have initiated measures to stop the Maoists from conducting joint secret meetings in the state.
Security cordons have been tightened at two different places. The districts in North Bengal, which share border with Nepal and Bhutan have been kept under high security alert and the state forces are working in close association with the Border Security Force and Shashtra Seema Bal, so that Nepal Maoists cannot enter West Bengal through this area.
Additional forces have been deployed at Maoist pockets in West Midnapore, Bankura and Puruliya. The union external affairs ministry’s intelligence wing, Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), has also increased its vigil in these pockets.
In an attempt to tackle the specially-trained guerrillas, the West Bengal government is now taking the help of the army. 1,200 special commandos of the state police will be trained by the army and the state government is at the final stages of the discussions with senior officials of the Army Eastern Command in this regard.
Sources from the state home ministry told DNA that in a recent meeting Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee personally requested Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee to arrange for such training by the army.
The training programme will start from next month and the venue of the meeting would be the army camp at Binnaguri.
According to an official of the WB police, police commandos below the age of 30 would only be selected for the training programme. 1,200 commandos would be divided into six different companies and the training programme would be conducted in six different phases.
It is learnt that after the completion of the programme, a special operation group will be formed. The group would be lead by an officer of the rank of Special Superintendent of Police.
According to sources, the special operation group would be somewhat similar to the Grey Hound Force formed by the AP government to combat the Maoist guerrillas there.
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