The Communist Party of India (Maoist) on Thursday appealed to the South Eastern Railway (SER) authorities to directly contact the outfit to ensure the smooth running of trains in Left-wing extremism-affected areas.
The group also dismissed allegations of its involvement in the derailment of the Jnaneswari Express on May 28 and denied plans of targeting the Howrah-bound Duronto Express on Wednesday.
In a statement issued by Akash, a senior leader of the outfit's State unit, the Maoists also urged passengers to travel without any fear and not to “pay attention to false campaigns run by the State government.”
The statement comes following the suspension of train services in the Maoist-affected Kharagpur-Tatanagar section of the SER railways on Wednesday evening following an alert sounded by the Government Railway Police that the Maoists were planning to attack the Mumbai-Howrah Duronto Express.
‘Ploy to malign Maoists'
“There was no plan of sabotaging the railway tracks or attacking any train on Wednesday. It was a ploy of the State government to malign the Maoists and spread panic among the passengers. We appeal to any SER official to contact us in case of any confusion regarding the running trains on the route rather than listening to the State government,” Akash told TheHindu over telephone from an undisclosed location.
Reacting to Director-General of Police Bhupinder Singh's statement on Wednesday that the Maoists were gradually losing their support base among the tribal population and were killing innocent people, Akash claimed that “not a single” innocent person had been killed by the rebels so far, adding that the killings could “decrease by 95 per cent” if the Communist Party of India (Marxist) stopped supplying arms and money to its cadres in the region.
