டெலிகிராபில் இந்த செய்தி வந்துள்ளது.
வங்காளத்தில் 30 மாவோயிஸ்டுகள் மார்க்கெட்டுக்குள் வந்து மக்களின் நடுவே நின்று போலீஸ்காரர்களை சுடுகிறார்கள்.
போலீஸ்காரர்கள் திருப்பிச் சுட்டால் எங்கே மக்கள் இறந்துவிடுவார்களோ என்று சுட தயங்கியிருக்கிறார்கள்.
அதனால், மாவோயிஸ்டுகளால் சுடப்பட்டு உயிரிழந்திருக்கிறார்கள் போலீஸ்காரர்கள்.
மக்களை காப்பாற்றவென்று உயிர்த்தியாகம் செய்துள்ள இந்த போலீஸ்காரர்களுக்கு தலைவணங்குகிறேன்.
Villagers in front, cops didn’t fire, says officer
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
The under-construction hall where the police were attacked. Picture by Mita Roy
Purulia, Dec. 23: The policemen fired upon by suspected Maoists in Purulia yesterday had apparently not fired back to avoid killing villagers in a busy weekly bazaar.
“The perpetrators had merged with the market crowd. Had they been fired at, the bullets would have also hit many innocent villagers,” said Kuldip Singh, inspector-general of police (western range).
Dressed in ordinary clothes in the crowded haat (bazaar), over 30 Maoists had fired at four policemen when they arrived at the construction site of a community hall to relieve their colleagues on the previous shift. Two constables were killed and a third was seriously injured. Their Insas rifles were taken away.
Singh, who went to Raidiberada village in Burrabazar today, said: “The attack took the policemen completely by surprise. They had no chance to retaliate.”
There were at least three women among the attackers, who were selling vegetables at the haat before the strike.
Kanka Sahis, a schoolboy who lives near the bazaar, said: “It was around 4.30pm when we heard the shots from the direction of the hall. Then, within minutes, we saw men and women getting on motorcycles and speeding away through the market towards the Jharkhand border.”
The 200-odd people in the bazaar had fled for cover by then, the boy said.
The police had been posted at the construction site after Maoists threatened to blow up the community hall being built by the panchayat 6km from the Jharkhand border.
In Maoist-hit Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore, policemen will be posted in groups of only two so that many teams can be deployed near one another, Singh said. “If one team is attacked, a second team can retaliate.”
One of the slain cops, Chinmoy Mondal, had undergone specialised training in counter-terrorism only a month ago.
Director-general of police A.B. Vohra arrived in Purulia this evening to review the situation. A bypoll to the Para Assembly seat, about 60km from Burrabazar, is scheduled on Saturday.
The state police chief will submit a report on yesterday’s Maoist strike to the home secretary tomorrow.
