Author: IANS
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: November 25, 2006
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEL20061124024716
In what is seen as the largest guerrilla attack
in West Bengal, 80 Maoist rebels torched eight vehicles and fired at a paramilitary
camp and at workers' huts for about two hours so as to scuttle a road project.
The Maoists, led by a woman, struck early
Thursday in their effort to halt work on the project in their stronghold Belpahari
in West Midnapore district, which borders Jharkhand.
The Maoist squad burnt eight vehicles of the
Prime Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana road project. The road link, Maoists believe,
will give security forces better access to rebel hideouts; news reports quoting
police said on Friday.
"The guerrillas use a forest corridor
to travel to and from Jharkhand. If good roads are built, security forces
can step up vigil," said an official.
Media reports said about 25 women were part
of the group that arrived in the pre-dawn darkness and split into two. One
surrounded the India Reserve Battalion camp at Chhurimara, about 250 km from
Kolkata, and the other advanced to the project labourers' huts.
The Maoists, who also set on fire three houses,
left behind an explosive, supposedly a landmine, in a mustard field.
"For two hours they fired at the camp
challenging them in Hindi to come out and fight. Not one among the 70-75 jawans
stepped out. Even the sentries positioned behind sandbags scurried inside,"
said a labourer.
They pasted posters while the paramilitary
soldiers challenged by the rebels stayed inside their camp 300 metres away,
reports said.
"A tall and lean woman with cropped hair
was giving orders to her comrades in Bengali and Hindi," a labourer said.
Police suspect that the woman might be Sabita
Kumari, who belongs to Jharkhand and is in her early 20s.
The rebels, dressed in army fatigues, shook
the labourers awake and assembled them on the roadside where barrels of diesel
were stored. "They ordered us to empty the barrels on the vehicles and
set fire to them."
The incident is the latest in a series of
attacks in the region in the run-up to a statewide shutdown called by Maoists
December 14. On Tuesday, two paramilitary personnel in Belpahari were injured
in a landmine explosion.
On September 21, at least two policemen were
killed and several others, including photojournalists and police officers,
seriously injured when a landmine planted by the Maoists exploded in Lalgarh
area of West Midnapore district.
A Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)
leader and his bodyguard were killed the same month in the district.
