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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Mamata tears into Jungle Mahal ‘mafia’

Mamata tears into Jungle Mahal ‘mafia’

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published Published on Sep 26, 2011   modified Modified on Sep 26, 2011

-The Telegraph

 

Mamata Banerjee tonight used her strongest language yet to condemn “the Jungle Mahal mafia” and virtually warned of a rethink on the undeclared ceasefire in the Maoist zone after the leader of a local party was shot dead in West Midnapore.

Although the chief minister sought to paint the killers as the mafia, not Maoists, she ripped into the rebels’ supporters in universities in Calcutta, reflecting the distance she has travelled since assuming the responsibilities of governance.

Tension has been building up after a stand-off over talks but the immediate provocation was the murder of Jharkhand Janamukti Morcha president Rabindranath Bose, 50, a known anti-Maoist campaigner.

Four masked men on two motorbikes fired five revolver shots at Bose as he chatted with friends around 7pm at a shop in Dohijuri. Hit thrice in the chest and stomach, he died on the way to a hospital in Jhargram town, 5km away. No one claimed responsibility till late tonight but police sources said the Maoists were being treated as the prime suspects because Bose figured on their hit list.

Mamata’s reaction was quick. She spoke of the “mafia” and warned that the police would not remain spectators if “mindless killings” continued, and accused the rebels of planning to assassinate her and other senior Trinamul leaders.

“Police kintu churi porey thakbena, police police-er kaj korbey (the police will not wear bangles and watch; they will do their job). I have told the police ‘You don’t have to wait for my instructions to establish law and order in Jungle Mahal’,” she told STAR Ananda.

“These people are not Maoists, they are the mafia of Jungle Mahal. Maoists believe in an ideology but these people are simply looting the people of Jungle Mahal. Unfortunately, they are being backed by some people associated with Jadavpur University, Calcutta University and Presidency University. Occasionally, they hold hunger strikes at College Square and visit Jungle Mahal to voice their support for the Maoists. This can’t go on.”

Mamata said she would not “tolerate” killings at a time peace efforts were on. “We gave them a respite of three to four months while a peace process was on so they could return to the mainstream. Now I think I have made a mistake. I don’t want to repeat the mistake,” she said.

The chief minister added that after Bose’s murder, she had spoken to Sujato Bhadra, one of the interlocutors her government has appointed to talk to the Maoists.

“I told him that it was not fair that the Maoists should go on killing people during talks towards a peace process and at a time we are considering the release of Maoist prisoners. If he (Bhadra) wants, he can carry on his dialogue but this violence has to stop,” she said.

She added: “They are trying to kill me. I have reports that people are moving suspiciously around my home. They are also trying to kill our senior leaders like Mukul Roy.”

The police said Bose’s killers had sped towards the Jharkhand border, 25km away. The murder comes five days after the killing of local Trinamul leader Lalmohan Mahato in Jungle Mahal and a month after that of Trinamul worker Rabindranath Mishra near Jhargram. A common thread that ran through the lives of Bose, Mahato and Mishra was their association with campaigns against the Maoists.

Mamata said: “A few days ago, the Maoists held a rally in Jungle Mahal where they declared that local Trinamul leaders would be killed. Trinamul will not just wait and watch. We’ll fight them politically.”


The Telegraph, 26 September, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110926/jsp/frontpage/story_14554960.jsp


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