The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has declared a two-day bandh, starting July 7, followed by an additional five days of protests, demonstrations and public rallies in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
“The bandh is in response to the brutal killing of Comrade Azad, and freelance journalist Hem Chand Pande in a fake encounter in Adilabad,” said Ravula Srinivas, alias Ramana, secretary of the South Bastar Regional Committee of the CPI(Maoist), in a telephonic interview with this correspondent. “We request the public, intellectuals and all democratic forces to support this bandh.”
While Ramana promised not to target medical stores and essential services, he said the party would specifically target goods trains in the Bastar region. “We demand that trains carrying iron from Kirandul [in Dantewada] to Vishakapatnam [in Andhra Pradesh] be stopped for this period,” Ramana said, “else we shall be forced to target them.”
While TheHindu was unable to reach officials at the National Mineral Development Corporation in Kirandul, the Maoist decision to target the ore-carrying trains will significantly affect the company's operations.
Earlier this year, CPI(Maoist) cadres destroyed a pipeline designed to carry iron ore from the NMDC mines in Kirandul to a processing plant owned by the Essar Company in Andhra Pradesh.
In an interview in May, senior officials at NMDC identified the transportation of ore as one of the biggest problems affecting their mines.
On July 2, the police killed two persons in an encounter in Adilabad. While one body was identified as CPI(Maoist) central party spokesperson Azad, the second was found to be that of Hem Chand Pande, a man identified as a freelance journalist born in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand.
While the Bastar division of the CPI(Maoist) has claimed that Pande was simply a freelance journalist accompanying Azad on a story, a press release issued by the outfit's Northern Bureau has identified Pande as zonal committee member ‘Comrade Hem.'
Maoist leaders insist that Azad and Pande were not killed in an exchange of fire, as described the Andhra Pradesh police, but were picked up from Nagpur and executed in Andhra Pradesh. The police have consistently denied Maoist claims.
Centre sounds alert
Vinay Kumar reports from New Delhi:
The Centre has issued an alert in the Naxal-affected States ahead of the bandh called by Maoists. The Home Ministry has asked the States to be on maximum vigil and take steps to foil any attempt at violence, including hostage-like situations.
K. Balchand reports:
The Railways have issued a red alert directing zonal railways to ensure the safety of passengers and safe running of trains. With the zonal railways being given all powers to decide on running of trains, the East Central Railway, Hajipur, cancelled at least four pairs of trains, diverted 10 trains and regulated five others for three days with effect from Tuesday.
Keywords: bandh, Maoists, Comrade Azad, journalist Hem Chand Pande
Our Defence Minister's statement regarding deployment of the army to contain or terminate maoists meance, despite loosing men and material is some what puzling. There is a massive contigent of Indian armed forces in Kashmir, where there is law and order problem.Besides, kashimiris are not fighting the army with guns, bullets and granades. On the contrary, maoists are fighting with state defence agencies with bullets and granades, killing not only the CPRF but also killing the innocent people. If the army can be deployed in Kashimir to contain the law and order problem in one state, why cannot the army be deployed to confront the armed militants who are fighting the states? Maoism is not a law and order problem. Our primminister himself has stated on more than one occassion that maoism was the greatest threat to India. Army's intervention will be compelled sooner or later when they spread their tentacles through out the country. When a group runs a parallel government within India, when it calls for bandh at its own will, defying the law of the land and when the outlawed group takes up arms against the Indian government, It is high time the armed forces intervene and give a fatal blow to anti national eliments, before a country plunges into a civil conflict. This needs to be done before China builds her missions in the northern part of SRi Lanka.
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