Kolkata, Dec 12: The standoff between a 15,000-strong mob of armed tribals led by the Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) and the joint forces at Satpati camp near Lalgarh which continued for the day, ended in the evening.
Around 15,000 tribals armed with bows and arrows and sophisticated weapons had gheraoed the Satpati camp and started a protest there.
The tension began after a member of the PCAPA, Biplap Sau (35), was shot dead late on Thursday night after the joint forces opened fire at a mob. Six others of the group were injured.
Asit Mahato, convener of the PCAPA, said: “Around 10-15 armed cadres of CPM stopped the Lalgarh-bound bus at Satpati late in the evening and began assaulting the passengers. The place is located at a stone’s throw from the joint forces’ camp, but they did not turn up to resist the cadres.”
“So today, we have gheraoed the camp and will not withdraw until they apologise.”
Manoj Verma, SP, West Midnapore, however, said the members of PCAPA had opened fire at the camp.
“The jawans retaliated in self-defence, we have taken snaps of the marks of the firing at the camp,” he said. “No arrest has been made yet.”
After Sau’s death, the Maoists allegedly gunned down a CPM leader of the local committee at Parulia in Salboni in retaliation.
According to a senior officer of the Salboni police station, on the wee hours of Friday, around 10-15 armed Maoists stormed into the house of Trailokya Tudu (42), a local CPM leader.
Tudu was shot dead in front of his family. Around 10 houses of CPM members in the village were set afire by the Maoists.
“We have deployed joint forces in the village. Most of the villagers have started leaving the area,” said a senior district official.
–Agencies