India ups security after Maoist strike call
INDIA: Security was being increased across eastern India after Maoist
rebels called for a strike to protest the killing of several peasants in
a West Bengal village, police said. At least 14 people died in the
village of Nandigram on Wednesday after police opened fire as they
protested against a planned Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
The call for a strike on Tuesday is likely to disrupt life in rural
areas of three eastern states and the central state of Chhattisgarh. The
authorities have also warned there could be violent protests.
Hundreds of police are being mobilised and paramilitary troops
readied for deployment in areas where the rebels are active.
"We are on high alert as the Maoists could try to disrupt law and
order especially after recent events," A.K. Maliwal, a senior police
official, told Reuters in Kolkata.
Maoist rebels distributed leaflets and sent notices to village
council offices in Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal, urging everyone to
join the strike, police said.
West Bengal's ruling communist administration on Saturday shelved
plans for the SEZ after facing a barrage of criticism.
Earlier on Sunday, suspected Maoist rebels blew up part of a boundary
wall around a proposed Tata Motors car factory in Singur in West Bengal,
a police official said.
"The strike call is a significant development and they could utilise
this opportunity to spread the movement among the masses," Mahesh
Rangarajan, a political commentator said.
Meanwhile the rebels called for a strike on Tuesday in Orissa, as
well as in the eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. In
Nandigram village police shot dead 14 protesters who were trying to
prevent the compulsory purchase of land to build an industrial park.
On Thursday, Maoist rebels killed 55 police in an attack on a jungle
security post in eastern Chhattisgarh state, one of their worst ever
attacks in the four-decades-old insurgency. Villagers in Nandigram say
that activists in the state's ruling Communist Party, dressed as police,
were involved in the shooting of the protesters.
Kolkata, Monday, Reuters, AFP |
