The tussle between cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), or CPI (Maoist), and CPI (Marxist), or CPI (M), has taken an ugly turn in West Bengal, with as many as 120 CPI (M) workers being selectively identified, abducted and killed by Maoists in the past 11 months.
Security agencies fear these ‘political killings’ would intensify in 2011 after the dates for state assembly elections are announced and Maoists would also try to disrupt the elections.
The home ministry has already acknowledged the presence of armed camps in West Bengal and members of these camps are often seen carrying arms.
“The situation in West Bengal is extremely bad and it will be worse during elections. The situation is like a civil war, where one section of people are trying to harm and kill another set of political workers. Although the state government must ensure law and order in the state, the state is in turmoil because of these selective killings,” said a senior home ministry official.
Sources in the home ministry also said of the 312 people killed in West Bengal this year, almost 40 percent were because of Maoists. The rise in violence levels can also be gauged from the fact that in 2009, only 134 people had died in Maoist-related violence in the state.
“The crackdown against Maoists is continuing by the state police and jungle warfare teams of paramilitary, but we are expecting a rise in violence levels soon,” added the official.
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Only nine Maoists were killed in 2009, but this year, more than 60 have been killed and over 400 have either been arrested or surrendered to the security forces.
“The security forces have recovered around 432 kilograms of explosives from different districts of West Bengal.