Nepal: Disqualified PLA Fighter: “We Are Still Ready to Wage War”

PLA base during the People's War

This article appeared in the Himalayan Times on February 3, 2010.

Leave-taking PLAs warn of waging war

Suryamani Gautam

DASARATHPUR: Demanding a proper settlement, the disqualified PLA combatants at a farewell programme in Dasharathpur today warned the government not to consider them weak.

 Harka Bahadur Nepali, a disqualified combatant, expressed his anger against the government saying that the government had tagged them as disqualified although they had fought along with the others in the people’s war. Nepali, saddened at being sent out of the cantonment said, “We are still ready to wage war but not ready to be tagged as disqualified.”

Kamal Oli, another disqualified combatant from Bardiya, said that they were being sent out in an unjust manner. Oli who had joined the PLA in 2005 lamented that service at PLA for six years had gone in vain.

 Demanding integration of disqualified combatants in the security agencies other than the Nepali Army, Oli said that otherwise the combatants might join other militant groups. “We have learnt to use weapons and if not resettled properly the consequences may be counterproductive to the nation,” he claimed. Tuphan Singh Rawal, another combatant from Kohalpur, Banke, also shared similar lines.

Maoists Disrupt Construction of 350 Road Projects in Chhattisgarh

Mass meeting in Dandakaranya/Chhattisgarh region

This article appeared on Vamban.

Maoists Hold up Road Construction in Chhattisgarh

Raipur, Oct 19 – Maoist guerrillas have held up construction work at more than 350 road sites in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, an official said Monday. ‘At least 350 road construction projects under Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Scheme were held up in Maoist violence-hit Bastar region, mainly in Dantewada, Bijapur and Kanker districts. It is difficult to continue the work due to violence,’ an official in panchayat and rural development department told IANS. The projects amounted to Rs.1,000 crore (Rs.10 billion).

The contractors had told district police authorities that they were finding it difficult to carry on construction work due to Maoist intervention. According to police, Maoist guerrillas had set ablaze at least 65 vehicles this year alone in Bastar that were engaged in road construction projects. Several officials and workers who were carrying out construction work were abducted by the rebels and set free only after they guaranteed not to return to work.

Experts say Maoist guerrillas are holding up rural road construction projects as they do not want the infrastructure be built up in the interiors as it will give easy access to police and paramilitary forces to the forested areas. Chhattisgarh has witnessed a string of deadly attacks in recent years, majority of them in Bastar. Police say about 1,500 people were killed in the state since 2004 in Maoist violence of which 90 percent casualties were reported from Bastar, spread out over 40,000 sq km.

CPI(ML) Naxalbari Perspective on Operation Green Hunt

This article was published on Democracy and Class Struggle.

On the Perspective of the Resistance against Operation Greenhunt

A Perspective on the Resistance to Operation Green Hunt – by Comrade Ajith, Secretary – Communist Party of India (Marxist – Leninist) Naxalbari (Participant in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement)

The Central government has deployed a huge military force targeting a wide area ranging from Jharkhand to Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to West Bengal – Odisha. This is the spearhead of a massive attack to suppress and eliminate the revolutionary movement advancing in this area, led by the CPI (Maoist). This suppression campaign has been named Operation Greenhunt. The Home Minister P. Chidambaram and top officials of the Manmohan Singh government have openly talked about using the Air Force and carryingout so-called surgical strikes. There are reports that advanced military-technical support and equipment from the US and Israel is being used.

These murderous plans of the UPA government has the open support of most parliamentary parties. The Congress, BJP and CPM are its main proponents. They are united in an unholy alliance against the people. This unity of ruling class parties and their anti-people suppression campaign has, on the other hand, triggered off an unprecedented polarisation. A wide range of progressive, democratic forces and personages have come forward to condemn and oppose Operation Greenhunt. They are joining up, along with revolutionary forces, to form broad platforms to mobilise people and resist the government’s plans. They have rightly judged that Operation Greenhunt is nothing other than a “War on the People”. This development is a very important advance. It has already forced the Central government to change its offensive public stance, even though it continues with the suppression campaign.

Bengali People’s March Editor Killed by Prison Maltreatment

This article was published in Indian Express on February 3, 2010.

Kolkata editor of Maoist mouthpiece dies in custody

Four months after he was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Swapan Dasgupta, 59, the editor of the Bengali edition of Maoist mouthpiece People’s March, died in custody at the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata on Friday. Dasgupta was shifted to the SSKM Hospital on December 28 for treatment of asthma and respiratory problems. While rights activists alleged that it was a “state murder”, B D Sharma, ADG, Prison, said: “We met all requirements, there was no negligence from our side.”

The Kolkata Police Special Branch had picked up Dasgupta from his residence in Garia on October 6 last year, on charges of being associated with the People’s March — a Maoist mouthpiece that was earlier banned by the Kerala Government. However, the Press & Registration Appellate Board (PRAB) had lifted the ban on August 7 — two months before Dasgupta’s arrest.

Members of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) pointed out that the Bengali edition of People’s March has a valid press registration number—-WB BEN/2004/15681, “It was never put under any ban in Bengal. Even the Kerala ban had been lifted at the time of Dasgupta’s arrest in October,” said the organisation. Sujato Bhadra, general secretary of APDR, said: “He was murdered by the state. We have already filed complaints to the National Human Rights Commission. He required platelets and blood but it was not supplied by the jail authorities.”