CC ‘salutes martyrs’, gives state free hand on Lalgarh

KOLKATA: The CPM central committee, which is currently in session in Delhi, on Friday took up the Lalgarh Maoist issue and discussed at length the extent of damage and killings carried out by the banned ultra-Left force in West Bengal.

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is also a central committee member, gave the party forum a brief on the recent happenings at Lalgarh including the kidnapping of the office-in-charge of Sankrail police station and killings of two police officials by the Maoists.

It is learnt that the CC took strong exception to the killings and abduction and gave the state CPM leadership a free hand to deal with the issue.

The central committee also adopted a resolution condemning the killings of 124 of their party activists and sympathisers. ���The central committee salutes the 124 martyrs who have been killed in the pre and post-poll violence unleashed by the anti-Left forces in various parts of West Bengal between March 3 and October 22,��� the resolution said.

It also said ���More than half of these 124 martyrs were killed by the Maoists gangs. 120 of them belonged to CPM, while four belonged to other Left parties. Two of the victims were children from families of CPM activists.��� In its resolution, CPM also stated that ���the central committee salutes the memory of these comrades who have become victims of depredations of extremist Maoist gangs and the Trinamool Congress party combine.���

���These brave martyrs laid down their lives holding aloft the red banner of the party and its cause. The central committee is confident that the ultimate sacrifice of these comrades will not go in vain,��� the CPM said in its resolution.

Meanwhile, the CPM state leadership has urged the state government to initiate measures on a priority basis to find out two other police officials.

The state government is now talking of ���some strategies��� to prevent the recurrence of incidents like the abduction of police officer Atindranath Dutta by Maoists, a top official here.