New Delhi - Maoist rebels attacked offices and in three
Indian states as their general strike to protest police actions in
in eastern West Bengal entered the second day Tuesday.
Guerrillas razed the office of West Bengal's ruling party in
Jhargram, about 50 kilometres away from Lalgarh where security forces
are carrying out an operation to flush out rebels, late Monday.
They also attacked a party office in Burrabazar area of Purulia
district, north of the district of West Midnapore where Lalgarh and
Jhargram are located.
On Tuesday, the rebels blew up a mobile telephony tower in Gaya
district of neighbouring Bihar state and left posters saying they
avenging the police action in Lalgarh.
In Jharkhand, which borders Bengal and Bihar, Maoists blew up a
local government office in Palamau district.
The situation in Lalgarh, about 200 kilometres west of West
Bengal's state capital Kolkata, remained tense as security forces
moved around villages in small groups searching out and evacuating
civilians, Times Now television channel reported.
The villages were nearly empty, with residents either at relief
camps set up by the government or having joined Maoist rebels.
A humanitarian crisis was looming, NDTV news channel reported, as
villagers fled their homes and supply networks were cut off by the
fighting.
Maoist guerrillas were willing to talk to the state government if
the troops in Lalgarh area were withdrawn, Times Now reported quoting
Gaur Chakrabarty, a spokesman for the Communist Party of India
-Maoist, as saying.
The spokesman's comments came a day after the federal government
put the CPI-Maoist on a list of banned organizations and the security
forces prepared for a final move into the rebel-controlled area.
Tribal villagers backed by the Maoists claimed to have 'liberated'
the Lalgarh region in November, and made it into a virtual no-go zone
for the state police and administration.
The recent police action came after Maoist rebels and their tribal
supporters killed at least 10 members of the state's ruling communist
party and setting fire to its offices and police posts.
The Indian government had banned separate factions of the Maoists
before the groups came together under the banner of the CPI-Maoist in
2004.
Maoist guerrillas, who operate in 13 of India's 29 states, say
they are fighting for the rights of the landless, poor and tribal
people.
According to unofficial estimates, more than 3,000 people
including rebels have been killed in Maoist violence in India since
January 2005.
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