West Bengal (Maoist Insurgency): Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2012

The State Police’s recruitment drive in Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)-affected Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore Districts has received a strong response, reports The Indian Express. The Government has fast forwarded the process of recruitment of constables and home guards in the wake of the killing of Maoist politburo member Mallojula Koteswara Rao on November 24, 2011. According to official records, in 28 Police Stations across Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia districts, 93,285 tribal men and women have submitted forms for the post of special Police Constable. The government in its notification issued in September announced that 5,000 youths will be recruited as special police constables while another 5,000 to be recruited as national volunteer force. Read less...

Four Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres surrendered before Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Jhargram in West Midnapore District on January 12, reports The Hindu. The four surrendered cadres are identified as Lambodar Majhi, Bhajohari Mahato and Karan Kaibarta and Sukhdev Mahato. While was involved in Maoist activities in the West Midnapore District, the other three were active in Purulia District. The Maoists surrendered at an event marking the culmination of a two-day youth festival organised by the State Government on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. Read less...

West Bengal Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee on January 14 announced that her Government would prepare an employment bank for the youth in Junglemahal comprising three Maoist-hit districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura, reported India Today. She promised that development would help her gain political and administrative control in the Maoist-hit regions. Mamata, who recently went to Jhargram to join the 'Junglemahal Festival', coughed up INR.25,000 each for 710 football clubs that participated in the yearlong football tournament in the troubled forest belt. More than INR.4 crore was used from Government coffers to wean the people away from extremism. Read less...

From paying off an ailing father's medical bills and eliminating sworn enemies to death threats - the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) resorts to every tactics to rope in new recruits, reports The Times of India. And if the accounts of four surrendered Maoists are any indication, it's everything but ideology that forced them to take up arms against their own people. Squad members Lombodar Majhi, Bhojohari Mahato, Karan Koiborto and Sukdeb Mahato had surrendered before Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Jhargram on January 12 and were allowed by police to speak to the media in Midnapore on January 16. They said they were quickly disillusioned with the Maoists. Read less...

One of the main accused in the derailment of the Jnaneswari Express that claimed 148 lives on May 28, 2010, identified as Joydeb Mahato, was arrested from West Midnapore District on January 17, reports IBN Live. A District Police officer said the leader of Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)-backed People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) was arrested near Midnapore town by a joint team of West Bengal Police and Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) had announced a reward of INR 100, 000 for any information to capture Mahato alive. Joydeb is the fourth top functionary of the organisation. Read less...

The Police on January 21 claimed to have uncovered a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) plot to target the Nimpura Police Camp near the Indian Air Force base at Kalaikunda in West Midnapore District as “revenge” for Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishanji’s death, reports Indian Express. According to sources, some documents including the “blueprint” of the plot were recovered when the Police, acting on a specific tip-off, raided a Maoist shelter at Akrashol village in Jhargram in the night of January 20. Nobody has been arrested so far. “There were several letters written by a senior leader of the West Bengal-Jharkhand-Bihar-Odisha regional committee of the CPI-Maoist. The squad members of Bengal had been directed to carry out the attack at the Nimpura Police camp and loot arms from the camp to take revenge for Kishanji’s death,” said an unnamed senior Police official. “State secretary Akash was given charge of the attack and several squad members from Jharkhand and Bihar were assigned. The letter was dated December 15,” he added. Read less...

Md Khaleque alias Bablu, reportedly a close aide of State secretary Akash of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) of West Bengal and Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishanji, was arrested from village Khokra near Harishchandrapur in Maldah District in the morning of January 24, reports The Times of India. Bablu was reportedly the prime suspect in the killing of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) supporter Sridam Das (49), of Dubrajpur on April 22 of 2008 and Primary school teacher and CPI-M leader Nandalal Mistri (53), of Rajnagar village of Birbhum District on September 22, 2011. Read less...

Newstrack India reports that during his three day visit to Communist party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) affected Districts of West Bengal, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, said that it is important to combat Maoists in a different way than what has been done so far. "It is not just a matter of arms and guns. It is a psychological war, and here both political procedures and development have significance. If we don't take the political procedures forward, till there is political mobilisation of political parties in these districts, and till we don't bring in heavy changes in rural development, we can never hope to win this war against the Maoists," Ramesh told media in Bankura District on January 25. "Most tribal majority areas like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar are facing turbulence today. The Maoist groups are taking advantage of this factor. So we should give primary importance to the welfare of the tribals in our strategy for development," said Ramesh. Ramesh also said that the District of Bankura has 22 administrative blocks (administrative division), out of which four are being affected by Maoists. Read less...

The Union Government will allot nearly INR 900 million for rural development across the three Naxalite [Left Wing Extremism (LWE)] affected Districts of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore in West Bengal, the Union Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh, said in Kolkata on January 25, reports The Hindu Business line. According to the Minister, a sum of nearly INR 300 million will be allotted in each of the Districts for development purposes. The amount, he said, should ideally be spent exclusively in projects in affected blocks of the District. “The time is right for political activities and rural development in these areas of West Bengal,” he told reporters after his three-day visit to the LWE-affected Districts of Bankura and Purulia. According to the Minister, there should be a “three-P” approach in these areas which would include political activities, taking local tribal people into confidence and finally the use of Police and Paramilitary to maintain law and order. "The problem is not as serious in West Bengal as in Jharkhand, Odisha of Chhattisgarh. There is no liberated zone of the Maoists in West Bengal," Ramesh told at the press conference, adds IBN Live. Stating that 18 Districts in Odisha, 17 in Jharkhand and 10 in Chhattisgarh were very badly affected, he added, "West Bengal is not in that category. So the LWE problem here is not so disturbing. But since Purulia is in a trijunction, it is vulnerable. So we cannot relax." Warning against political exclusionism, he said all parties in the Maoist areas must be given space so that such activities take place on a day-to-day basis. "We cannot substitute one form of tyranny with another form of tyranny." Pointing out that the country's development was not tribal friendly, he said, "our forest administration is anti- tribal and our mining policy and our land acquisition policy is anti-tribal. It is no wonder that all tribal areas of India today are in a state of discontent." Read less...

Suspected Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres killed a worker of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party in Jhargram area in West Midnapore District on January 29, reports Indian Express. The worker was picked up by the Maoists late in the night from his home and was shot dead. Namita Mahato, a local woman, told ANI that the body of the TMC worker was found near the railway tracks. Read less...