|
With the Nov.24, 2004
ambush in UP, killing 17 police personnel on the spot, the ruling classes have
gone into a panic. Barely 70kms from Varanasi, the newspapers began clamouring
that the Maoists are now nearing the Capital. In this ambush, under Naugadh
police station in Chandauli district, 13 PAC jawans and four police were killed,
including the incharge of the Chandraparbha police station. This action occurred
at 7.30 in the morning, 5 kms away from the Chandraprabha dam. The police van
was totally destroyed and the guerrilla forces retreated with 5 SLRs, 2 LMGs, an
AK-47, grenades and bullets.
This ambush was a
retaliation against the massive combing and police terror in the region. In fact
two days earlier Maoist guerrillas of the CPI(Maoist) had killed two policemen
and a forest officer during an armed encounter. They also blew up the Dak
Bunglow of the forest officials. As a result of this new offensive, the I.G. of
police of that zone together with the police commissioner themselves began
leading the new combing operations; both of whom escaped by a hair’s breath
during the ambush on Nov.20. In fact the police van that was hit was not moving
alone; it was part of a convoy with three other vans with police from the police
stations of Maugalsarai, Chaandauli and Saithdaraja. None of these vans dared to
take on the Maoists and immediately fled the scene. To rebuild the moral of the
mercenary forces the UP police Chief, B.K.Nayyar, promised Rs.5 lakhs each to
the families of the deceased plus a job for one member of the family.
The bourgeois media
complained that the Maoist guerrillas carried out this action with clockwork
precision. They said that the administration of the region was already alerted
due to the spread of the Maoist influence in the area. Besides the PAC, six
companies of the CRPF were also stationed in the area. The media claimed that
the Maoists were running a parallel government in 250 villages in the districts
of Chandrauli, Sonbhadra and Mirzapur, and that their influence was spreading to
Gajipur, Banda, Chitrakoot, Devariaya and Ballia. This whole region borders
Bihar, Jarkhand and Chattisgarh. It was to put and end to the terror unleashed
on the people by the police and para-military forces that the Maoist guerrillas
hit back.
Also, it must not be
forgotten that over three years back, in this very region, the police brutally
massacred sixteen peasants belonging to the Krantikari Kisan Committee of the
then MCC. On March 9, 2001 in Bhavanipur village of Mirzapur district they
dragged out members of the KKS who had gathered as part of a wedding celebration
in the village, and brutally murdered them. One Mahilla comrade, Kanchan, who
had come from the neighbouring village to campaign for the International Women’s
Day programme was dragged away by the police never to be seen again. Besides the
one agent’s house in the village the police terrorized the entire village
beating them like animals. Not even the old, women and children were spared.
Expensive items from their houses were looted. Even the dead bodies were not
given to the families but whisked away by the police without identification.
In that incident,
what was surprising was the fact that the CPI(ML)Liberation, which has a
presence in that area, said not a word in condemnation. Ever since then, for
over three years the police and landed interests have been running amuck against
the oppressed masses and the revolutionary activists. It is not surprising the
retaliation took place to curb the atrocities.
|
