“A group of about 40-50 Maoists entered Kadasole village and took away CPM panchayat member Anadi Mahato and party activists Bhakti Mahato and Radhanath Mahato from their houses to the nearby Ranja forest. Later, the ultras gunned down all of them,” West Midnapore district police superintendent M K Varma said.
The killings of CPM activists by the Maoists have put a question mark on the continued presence of the combined security forces in the Lalgarh region. With Tuesday’s killings, the total number of CPM cadres killed since the launch of the operation on June 19 last to flush out the Maoists holed up in Lalgarh, touched 61.
The accuracy of killings, sometimes after “summary trials” by the Naxalites, has left a trail of desertions by the CPM supporters. According to sources, the recent stockpiling of arms and gathering of some sharp-shooters, reportedly at the CPM party office at Enayatpur village, have not gone down well with the Maoists.
“This has only resulted in the apprehension of renewed killings in the region and Wednesday’s shocking murders are just the beginning of another round of grim political encounters,” sources told the Deccan Herald here.
