Punjab sees red over rebel rise

Punjab has sounded an alert in all districts against the “surreptitious activities of the Maoist elements”. There has not been any left wing extremism as such but a senior CPI(M) functionary arrested from Jalandhar recently revealed that  Maoists were making “serious and concerted attempts to gain roots in Punjab”.

Jai Prakash Dubey was wanted in many criminal cases in Jharkhand. He was hiding in a village near Phillaur, Jalandhar under the false name of Anupam for almost a year. He was forming a network of sympathisers through ideological infiltration to create a frontal organisation in the area.

The police said Dubey belonged to Jharkhand’s Hazaaribagh district and was involved in around 25 cases, including murder, there.

Though he did not divulge much about his organisation’s activities, his arrest was going to hit Maoist plans for Punjab.

Increasing Maoist influence in Punjab and Haryana has been worrying officials of late. In the last two years, at least 30 organisations propagating left wing extremism, have spread tentacles in rural areas, officials said.

Sources said the Maoists were not just eyeing farmers, whose land was being acquired for industrialisation, but also students and labourers, by taking up causes like alleged administrative lapses.

The four prominent leftist units spreading tentacles in the region are the CPI (Maoist), the CPML (Party Unity), the CPML (New Democracy) and the CPML (Liberation). Dubey was reportedly trying to build a network with leaders of all these organisations, the police said.

Officials said while Punjab has remnants of radical left extremism, their building inroads in Haryana was worrying. “More than Punjab, left wing extremism seems to have become rampant in Haryana where economic activity is on the upswing,” a security official said.