Maoists kill two workers as top commander surfaces after years

Oct 29, 2009, 11:12 GMT

   New Delhi - Suspected Maoist guerrillas killed two workers of the ruling party in India's West Bengal state and abducted three other supporters of the party, even as a 'supreme' Maoist leader surfaced after a gap of nearly 25 years, media reports said Thursday.

   Bodies of two members of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the leading partner in the state's ruling coalition of leftwing parties, were found in West Midnapore district since Wednesday night, the NDTV network reported.

   While one worker was shot dead, the other was hacked to death and the bodies were found in forested areas in the region some 170 kilometres south-west of state capital Kolkata, the report said.

   Three party workers were abducted by tribals supporting the Maoists in the restive district on Thursday.

   The district has been witnessing unrest since November last year after Maoists started attacking the Communist politicians alleging that the state government had ordered police atrocities on the locals.

   The agitation started after police raided homes of tribals shortly after West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya escaped a landmine blast triggered by the Maoists.

   In June, government troops started an offensive after the Maoists and the tribal People's Committee Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) which backs the rebels, claimed to have 'liberated' Lalgarh, a main town in the district.

   Meanwhile, 'Supreme' Maoist leader Muppalla Laxman Rao, alias Ganpati, who had been in disguise for 25 years, surfaced to address Maoist cadres at an undisclosed location in the Dandakaranya region in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, news channels reported.

   The images broadcast on local television created a flutter as these were the first pictures of Ganpati since he went underground 25 years ago. One of India's most wanted militants, Ganpati is one of the founding members of the left-wing insurgency in India.

   The Maoist rebels claim they are leading an armed rebellion to secure the rights of the poor and marginalized. They operate in some of India's poorest districts, specially forested land populated by tribal people that have seen little development.

   At least 2,671 people - including civilians, security personnel and rebels - have been killed in incidents related to Maoist violence in India since 2006, according to Home Ministry data.

   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has termed the Maoist militancy as one of the gravest internal security threats to the country, Thursday said Maoist violence needed to be dealt with in a holistic way, with a combination of security measures and administrative steps to end the alienation of tribal people.

   'I do recognise that in certain areas, particularly in areas where the tribal population is in large (numbers), there is alienation,' Singh told reporters in Srinagar, capital of India-administered Kashmir.

   Singh said this could be because development activities may not be reaching the tribals, who are among the poorest of the poor in the country. ''We have to operate on two legs. We have to enforce and law and order. Simultaneously we have to pay attention to economic development,' he said.