 |
||
|
||
|
||
The tribal fields of Talasari taluka in Thane district are afire
with Marxist wrath. On Republic Day, at about 3 pm in the
afternoon, an armed 8,000 strong mob of activists of the Communist
Party of India (Marxist), most of them also tribals, attacked
Kavada village. The target was tribal sympathisers of the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) and activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP), which has a strong base in the main Talasari taluka
headquarters.
However, it was the police party posted at Tahkarpada in the
aftermath of earlier rampages of CPM mobs, which bore the brunt.
The police had to resort to firing which left two Marxist activists
dead and a teenager injured.
A40-year-old police constable, K B Damoda (Buckle no 9) had his 303
rifle taken away from him and was attacked by an axe and a barrage
of stones flying from kofnis (slings in which stones are placed and
whirled round before being released as a missile). His skull was
smashed with the butt of the seized rifle. The constable is
admitted to a hospital in Vapi in neighbouring Gujarat and is
battling for his life.
Among others injured in the attack are PSIs U L Kadam, R U More and
D D Sathe. Also among the injured was CBI police sub-inspector
Sanjay Khan, who had just completed his one-month training as a
probationer.
Talking to The Indian Express at the Talasari police station with
five stitches on his head he said the attack on him on the last day
was a "fitting culmination" of his four-week training.
Deputy Superintendent of Police K L Prasad gave the names of those
killed in the police firing as Babu Navshva Korpade and Lakshya
Beez. Their bodies were discovered today in the morning.
A 17-year-old boy, Vanshu Navshya Kadas, who was also injured in
the police firing was shifted to a hospital in Mumbai, police said.
Kavada is the village of BJP MP Chintaman Wanga. The CPM activists
have taken to arson to intimidate the tribals and at least three
houses have been razed. According to reports, since January 12,
the CPM activists had been repeatedly attacking the two houses.
Talking to The Indian Express at Kawad where the tribal houses have
been razed, Wanga said the state administration had done little to
pay attention to the BJP complaints despite the fact that Deputy
Chief Minister and Home Minister Gopinath Munde belonged to the
BJP.
Talasari, an outpost of Thane district, close to the Gujarat border
has been a bone of contention between the Marxists, the VHP and the
BJP (formerly Jan Sangh) and the Christian priests headed by the
Portuguese church located at Talasari headquarters. The Christians
had then sided with the Marxists to combat the VHP. But the BJP
succeeded in making inroads into the Marxist bastion nurtured by
the stormy petrel Godavari Parulekar, so much so, that the bastion
fell to BJP tribal MP Chintaman Wanga in the last parliamentary
elections. His election saw an exodus of Marxist tribal activists
to the BJP.
Since then, there had been sporadic attacks on the villagers and
houses of the BJP activists and according to official report there
had been at least eighteen such attacks in the past one year.
After a lull, there was an increased frequency of attacks by the
CPM activists. Since January 12, there have been intensified
attacks at least on half-a-dozen occasions, culminating into the
Republic Day episode.
Meanwhile, the Talasari police have arrested a total of eight
persons including Jawhar MLA Ramiji Vartha, former MLA and MP
Lahanu Sidva Kom, Shankar Chavan, Parshuram Chavan, Barkya Mangat,
Sabhapati, Vijay Damodar Mali, Vilas Rama Shelar, Kisan Mangal
Shruti - all of them CPM leaders. They have been charged with
unlawful assembly with armed weapons, rioting, attempt to murder,
etc.
Talasari town reacted to the violence by observing a spontaneous
hartal today to condemn the attack. But the CPM has hit back by
giving a call for an indefinite bandh in Talasari.
Talasari is in the grip of tension even after twelve hours of the
incident and visiting newsmen saw burning houses.
|
||
|
||
|
||