JOIN USMaoists kill two, abduct three
While CPM worker Tapan Mudi’s body was found on the road off Sharpura forests, Dilip Mahto, a member of the party Manidaha local committee, who was earlier kidnapped from his house, was shot dead near the Kotwali police station limits.
Before the panicked villagers could gather courage to inform the police, came the news of the abduction of three CPM supporters by the tribal agitators from the Goaltore area, the police said.
These people were reported to be abducted in retaliation to the kidnapping of a PCAPA supporter allegedly by the Marxists on Wednesday, the police said.
The abductions comes in the wake of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government mulling a ban on the newly-formed armed militia –– Sidhu Kanu Gana army –– of the Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA).
Even though the CPM is still not very keen to ban the CPI(Maoist), the hijack of the Bhubaneswar- New Delhi Rajdhani Express at Banstala on Tuesday by this new front of PCAPA has prompted the authorities to contemplate a ban.
“The Centre has an expert committee to evaluate the reasons behind the administration’s decision to ban an organisation. We’re preparing a report, listing all the activities of PCAPA to that committee for its perusal,” Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh told newsmen here.
The PCAPA has some high-profile rights activists and intellectuals among its 118 central committee members. Hence, the state government is taking all caution so that it does not go to the court to obtain a stay against the ban.
Meanwhile, in another development,the First Information Report filed against the hijackers of the Rajdhani Express does not mention either the Maoists or the armed wing of the PCAPA.
The FIR filed by the Jhargram Government Railway Police on Thursday was against ‘unknown persons’ for holding up the train, ‘heckling passengers’ and preventing staff from ‘discharging their duties for a long time’.