PCAPA leader killed in ‘fake encounter’
In a new twist to the tale of a gun battle that left three Maoists dead on early Tuesday, top Left- wing rebel leader Kishenji claimed that the report of the gun fight was fabricated by cops who killed the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) leader in a fake encounter.
Kishenji alias Koteswar Rao also said in a press communique that the statement of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram issued earlier in the day, was not quite clear to them and hence, a mobile number was made available, purportedly in response to the fax number given by the home minister, for contacting the Maoist leadership.
The government was invited to get in touch with the rebel leadership on February 25, preferably after 5 pm. The mobile number quoted in the communique is 09734695789.
Alleging that the CPI (Maoists) did not break its conditional 72-day ceasefire by attacking the Kantapahari camp of the security forces in West Midnapore district, Kishenji said that the forces dragged Lalmohan Tudu, a popular leader of PCAPA out of his residence and killed him and two others in a “staged encounter.”
“This was done to weaken the morale of the Committee and planned to coincide with the Plus-10 examination that began so that PCAPA could not react immediately,” he said.
The fake encounter was staged to malign the Maoists, he said and added that the Union Home Ministry officials were free to talk to them in the mobile number for the preliminary dialogue.
“And if the preliminary discussions prove successful, the outfit will be ready for a meeting with the central government,” the statement said.
The PCAPA which called for a week’s bundh in the Lalgarh region from Wednesday to protest the “murder” of the three in “cold blood”, however, exempted the examinees and the exam centres from its purview.
Earlier, reports quoting the the district police superintendent Manoj Verma said that activists of PCAPA and rebels assembled near Kantapahari camp on early Tuesday and fired at the forces. The alert jawans belonging to CRPF and State Armed Police repulsed the attack,triggering nearly a two hour-long gun battle.
In the heavy exchange of fire, Tudu and two of his associates were killed. Sleuths confirmed one of the dead included Suchitra Murmu who participated in the attack on the EFR camp at Silda early last week.
DH News Service
