The president of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA), the Maoist-backed tribal resistance group based in Lalgarh, was killed last night in what police claimed was “retaliatory fire” after guerrillas attacked a CRPF camp here.
However, the PCPA said Lalmohan Tudu, 48, was picked up from his home when he had dropped in for a brief visit and shot dead in a paddy field behind the house.
Such persistent claims during the day and the smouldering mood among security forces after the police massacre in Shilda suggest the stirrings of an undeclared strategy shift in the fight against Maoists.
No one would publicly call it an “eye-for-an-eye” crackdown but several officers recalled such a policy had crushed the Naxalite movement of the late 1960s. ( )
If Tudu was killed as a result of a policy shift, it has come at a time the Maoists have betrayed signs that they could be feeling the heat of low-intensity security operations now under way in states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. A Maoist leader had yesterday made a conditional truce offer to the Centre.
In response, Union home minister P. Chidambaram today sought to tighten the screws, telling the rebels how to draft such messages (“no ifs, no buts”) and sending them a fax number of an additional secretary’s office. ( )
On record, the security forces insisted that PCPA chief Tudu died in a shootout with the CRPF in Kantapahari, 6km from Lalgarh town.
According to the district police, the security forces received information of a Maoist “build-up” in the forest outside the camp around 8.30 last night.
Source : http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100224/jsp/frontpage/story_12145154.jsp
However, the PCPA said Lalmohan Tudu, 48, was picked up from his home when he had dropped in for a brief visit and shot dead in a paddy field behind the house.
Such persistent claims during the day and the smouldering mood among security forces after the police massacre in Shilda suggest the stirrings of an undeclared strategy shift in the fight against Maoists.
No one would publicly call it an “eye-for-an-eye” crackdown but several officers recalled such a policy had crushed the Naxalite movement of the late 1960s. ( )
If Tudu was killed as a result of a policy shift, it has come at a time the Maoists have betrayed signs that they could be feeling the heat of low-intensity security operations now under way in states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. A Maoist leader had yesterday made a conditional truce offer to the Centre.
In response, Union home minister P. Chidambaram today sought to tighten the screws, telling the rebels how to draft such messages (“no ifs, no buts”) and sending them a fax number of an additional secretary’s office. ( )
On record, the security forces insisted that PCPA chief Tudu died in a shootout with the CRPF in Kantapahari, 6km from Lalgarh town.
According to the district police, the security forces received information of a Maoist “build-up” in the forest outside the camp around 8.30 last night.
Source : http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100224/jsp/frontpage/story_12145154.jsp
No comments:
Post a Comment