Kolkata, June 29: Security forces on Sunday arrested two Maoist rebels, defused seven landmines and were busy gathering intelligence inputs before launching an assault on the rebels’ remaining stronghold at Kantapahari and its surrounding areas of West Bengal.
The two Left wing extremists were picked up from Sarenga near Kargil junction in neighbouring Bankura district, minutes after two landmines were found from the area by the joint force of the central paramilitary troopers and West Bengal armed police.
The two rebels were being interrogated at the Khatra police station.
“We have picked up the two men. They are now being questioned,” the state’s Inspector General of Police Raj Kanojia said in Kolkata.
A day after reclaiming Ramgarh, 22 km from Lalgarh, the security forces spent the day fine-tuning their future strategy as senior officers held a series of meetings and the personnel kept vigil on some key roads. Uniformed men were stationed every 500 metres.
“Our people need rest. We also have to plan out our next phase of action so as to prevent any casualty among the forces and the villagers who otherwise may get caught in the crossfire,” a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Sunday was the 11th day of the operation West Bengal’s Left Front government has launched to flush out the Maoist guerillas from in and around Lalgarh area – 200 km west of state capital Kolkata.
The security forces on Saturday secured Ramgarh village after a nine-km march through dense forests from Goaltore near West Midnapore’s border with Bankura district.
There was some semblance of normalcy Sunday at Ramgarh, where the rebels had torched a police outpost and driven away the civil administration June 15. Some shops opened and a few people began returning to their houses from where they had fled fearing bloodshed.
The two-day march to Ramgarh saw the forces defusing landmines, firing mortars and engaging in gunbattles with the Left-wing extremists – who now appear to be on the backfoot with their area of operation shrinking by the day.
“Now they have their backs to the wall. And that was precisely our plan from the outset. They can’t flee from the conflict zones for long, as their safe hideouts are becoming fewer and fewer. They have to fight us directly by coming out into the open,” said the officer.
The security forces believe that the rebels are likely to put op fierce resistance at Kantapahari – situated between Ramgarh in the north and Lalgarh in the south.
The security personnel will now also try to re-establish the state writ over Barapelia – the headquarters of the agitating Maoist-backed tribal People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) – besides continuing the combing operations in the villages and jungles with the CRPF’s elite anti-Maoist force Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA).
Meanwhile, activists of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) took out a motorcycle rally from Chandrakona Road near Ramgarh to Salboni.
“We have taken out the rally to help restore peace and normalcy,” said CPI-M leader Sanatan Majhi.
The PCAPA and the Maoists had since last November established virtual control over 42 villages in Lalgarh and surrounding areas where hundreds of Maoist extremists had virtually taken over the role of the state administration.
The troopers have already re-established the writ of the state in a majority of these villages.
Lalgarh has been on the boil since November when a landmine exploded on the route of the convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada.
Complaining of police atrocities after the blast, angry tribals backed by Maoists launched an agitation, virtually cutting off the area from the rest of West Midnapore district.
Maoists are active in areas under 21 police stations in the state’s three western districts – West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia.
–IANS–