Filed under: Indian Subcontinent | Tags: Adivasi, Bihar, Binpur, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Central Reserve Police Force, Chhattisgarh, Cobra Force, CPI (M), CPI-Maoist, India, Indian Home Minister, Indian Prime Minister, Inqilab Zindabad, Jharkhand, Lalgarh, Malida, Manmohan Singh, Maoism Zindabad, Maoist, Maoist Cadres, Nandigram, Operation Lalgarh, Orissa, P. CHidambaram, People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, Pirakata, Trinamool, West Bengal, West Midnapore
18 June 2009
Source: The Hindu
Lalgarh (West Bengal) (IANS): Advancing security forces lobbed tear gas shells and made a baton charge to break a ‘human wall’ put up by Maoist cadres, armed with bows and arrows and pickaxes, in this troubled zone as West Bengal’s Communist government launched a massive operation Thursday to free the region of left extremists.
Two rebels as well as a lensman accompanying the security forces were injured, eyewitnesses said. There was no police confirmation of the news.
A day after being prodded by the centre to reclaim this headquarters of Binpur 1 community development block in West Midnapore district, 200 km form state capital Kolkata, from the Maoists, the state police personnel, backed by the central forces, moved in from their base camp at nearby Pirakata for ‘Operation Lalgarh’.
However, soon after, the forces came up against a ‘human wall’ at Malida, as hundreds of tribals carrying traditional weapons like bows and arrows, shovels, pickaxes and canes blocked the way by felling big trees on the road as they shouted slogans like “Inqilab Zindabad” and “Maoism zindabad”.
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