BBC: Maoist ‘rampage’ in West Bengal

Burning the house of CPI(M) leader. The CPI(M) has been the oppressive ruling party in West Bengal for decades.

First appeared on BBC. (Thanks to Shine the Path)

Hundreds of Maoists backed by thousands of villagers have seized the ruling party’s last stronghold in a troubled part of India’s West Bengal state.

Armed rebels are reportedly patrolling roads around the village of Dharampur in the Lalgarh area after police fled. Three people were killed, reports say.

Rebels have been entrenching themselves in Lalgarh since last November and now have almost total control of the area.

Maoist-linked violence has killed 6,000 people in India over the past 20 years.

The rebels operate in more than 180 districts across east and central India and are seen as a major threat to national security. Last week more than 20 police were killed in the eastern state of Jharkand.

The Maoists say they represent the rights of landless farmhands and tribal communities.

‘Ransacked’

The BBC’s Amitabha Bhattasali in Calcutta said that as hundreds of workers from the state’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), fled the Lalgarh area, Maoists claimed it as their first “liberated” zone in West Bengal.

One of the police posts was later set ablaze and the Maoists were reported to have demolished the house of a local communist leader.

“The Maoists went on a rampage yesterday in Dharampur village and ransacked our zonal secretary’s home and party office before setting it on fire. Three of our men are dead and six more still missing,” a CPI(M) official said.

Nepal: Maoists attack UML party office

This article was published on Nepal News.

Maoists attack UML party office, cadres in Kalikot; Administration imposes curfew

District Administration Office, Kalikot has clamped a curfew in and around district headquarter Mangma after the situation in the area became tense following attacks by Maoist cadres at the UML party office, Sunday evening.

Cadres of the Unified CPN (Maoist) had vandalized the party office of CPN (UML) in Mangma and attacked over a dozen UML cadres, Sunday afternoon. The situation had become tense after UML cadres protested against the attack.

The local administration has imposed curfew in and around the district headquarter from 8 pm Sunday to 5 am Monday to take the situation in control.