Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau strongly condemns the killings and attacks by armed Maoist gangs on CPI(M) cadre and the reign of terror unleashed in the Lalgarh areas of West Midnapore district, West Bengal. Nine CPI(M) members have been abducted. The bodies of three of them have been found but the others have not been traced. The Maoists are using the Jharkhand border areas as their base to extend into West Bengal. CPI(M) members and supporters are being targeted and hounded out of the area and Party offices and houses of CPI(M) workers are being destroyed. The Maoists are using poor tribals as human shield to further their goals. Shockingly, these depredations have the indirect and direct support of important sections of the opposition political parties in West Bengal.
In Burdwan district, a respected district committee member of the CPI(M) Com. Falguni Mukherjee was shot dead at point blank range by hoodlums connected with the Trinamool Congress.
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) calls upon all its units to protest against these killings of CPI(M) cadre and supporters in West Bengal. It appeals to all democratic minded people to condemn these attacks and come forward in all possible ways to protest. It calls upon the Central Government to immediately rush the required number of para military forces to the area as requested by the State Government.