Maoists kill police official, abduct two in West Midnapore (Lead)
October 20th, 2009 - 6:59 pm ICT by IANSKolkata, Oct 20 (IANS) Armed Maoists killed a police sub-inspector and abducted two others in a daring daylight raid on a police station in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district Tuesday. The rebels also looted money from a nearby bank and left posters demanding the release of a jailed Maoist leader.
A group of around 100 left-wing rebels attacked the Sankrail police station under Jhargram sub-division and shot dead the second officer Sub Inspector Dibakar Bhattacharya, who was in his seat, before kidnapping the Officer in Charge Atindranath Dutta and Assistant Sub Inspector Swapan Roy, police sources said.
Owning up responsibility for the raid, Koteswar Rao alias Kishanjee, top leader of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) issued a threat to kill any senior police officer of the rank of director general or inspector general if they ventured to the area.
“Yes, we conducted the raid. We killed the police officer and abducted the OC. And if the director general or any inspector general rank police officer goes there to free the OC, we will shoot them dead also,” Kishanjee warned.
Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Kuldeep Singh confirmed the raid by the rebels.
According to police sources, the police were heavily outnumbered in the assault and many fled.
The motorcycle-borne Maoists decamped after looting money from a bank close to the police station and pasted posters demanding the release of arrested tribal leader and People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) leader Chhattradhar Mahato.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee convened an emergency high-level meeting at the state secretariat Writers’ Building which was attended by the chief secretary and senior police officials.
A large police force has left for the remote spot, but has not been able to reach as Maoists have reportedly planted landmines along the way.
Dibakar Bhattacharya is the first police officer to be killed by the ultras after the West Bengal government launched a massive security operation to flush out Maoist rebels from Lalgarh, 200 km west of Kolkata, in June. The Sankrail police station is located to the south of Lalgarh and close to the state’s border with Jharkhand and Orissa.
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- Maoists free abducted West Bengal police officer (Lead) - Oct 22, 2009
- Cop in Maoist captivity, West Bengal ready to negotiate (Roundup) - Oct 22, 2009
- Mamata questions success of Lalgarh operations - Oct 22, 2009
- Ready for talks with Maoists for cop's release: West Bengal - Oct 21, 2009
- Abducted policeman's family meets Buddhadeb - Oct 21, 2009
- Maoists kill one police officer, abduct two in West Midnapore - Oct 20, 2009
- Stop the violence, we will talk: Chidambaram tells Maoists - Oct 20, 2009
- Freed cop wants Maoists and government to talk - Oct 23, 2009
- West Bengal to revamp 30 police stations in Maoist region (Lead) - Oct 25, 2009
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Tags: abducted, bhattacharya, chief minister, chief secretary, communist party of india, daylight raid, kuldeep singh, landmines, maoist, maoists, midnapore district, police force, police official, police officials, police sources, police station, s committee, state secretariat, tribal leader, west bengal