Barely a week after suspected Maoists raided a police camp in West Bengal’s Bankura district, abducting two constables and decamping with two firearms, supporters of the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PSBJC) attacked a police station in the district on Monday with firearms as well as traditional arms.
Police sources said seven policemen and three PSBJC supporters were injured in the gunfight that followed. One PSBJC supporter reportedly succumbed to injuries later.
The PSBJC had called a 24-hour blockade in the three south-western districts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia on Monday in protest against the alleged atrocities perpetrated by CPI(M) cadres and security forces in the Lalgarh region.
As a part of the blockade programme, the PSBJC supporters had planned to gherao the Barikul thana in Bankura on Monday. The thana is located near the Satnala camp where the Maoists struck a week back, and also borders the Maoist-affected Belpahari area.
The police had set up barricades to stop the crowd, and the PSBJC supporters started firing at the policemen when they were not allowed to enter the thana premises.
A gun battle ensued and continued for almost an hour. Police sources said a woman Maoist squad leader, Urmila Singh Sardar, was later arrested and a few firearms recovered.
CPI(M) supporter killed
Meanwhile, another Communist Party of India (Marxist) supporter, Atul Sardar, a resident of Giridi village in the Belpahari region of Paschim Medinipur district, was shot dead by suspected Maoists.
Though the ultras did not claim responsibility for the killing, district police superintendent Manoj Kumar Verma said the needle of suspicion pointed to them.
The rebels also blew up a mobile tower at Bhimgarh in Birbhum district late on Sunday.
Superintendent of Police of Birbhum, Rabindranath Mukherjee, told The Hindu that about five persons locked up the two security men guarding the tower and then blew it up.
“The tower has been partially damaged. Though the incident bears semblance to Maoist activities elsewhere, we are still not sure whose handiwork it was since the district hitherto has no history of Maoist violence,” Mr. Mukherjee said.
