Thaindian News

Kolkata, Sep 23 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Thursday slammed Maoist guerrillas for brutally killing school teachers in West Bengal’s troubled West Midnapore district.
“The Maoists are killing teachers in front of students in schools. These Maoists want to let loose a rein of terror by killing people. What was the fault of these teachers that they got killed,” Bhattacharjee said while addressing a rally here.

Several school teachers and non-teaching employees were killed by the Maoists within the school premises - the latest being Ananta Mukherjee, CPI-M zonal committee member and clerical staff of the Silda High School and Srikanto Mondal, an employee of the Sebayatan Girls’ High School.

With such incidents going up in the state, teachers and students have demanded 24-hour security cover and threatened to stay away from school unless foolproof security was provided.

Bhattacharjee also attacked the Trinamool Congress (TC) for having an unholy alliance with the Maoists and attacked them for condoling the death of slain Maoist leader Azad.

“They are trying to destroy the whole system. But we won’t bow our heads to this destructive force. We will alienate them. They have now joined hands with the opposition party. In Maoist-inflicted areas they are going with hand in hand.

“That is why when these teachers get killed they remain mum and whenever a Maoist dies they feel sad and offer condolences,” he said.

Earlier this year, Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee while addressing a rally at Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, expressed her disapproval for what she called the “murder” of Maoist leader Cherukiri Rajkumar alias Azad.

The government has maintained that Azad was killed in a gun-battle with police at Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh July 2.