Death Penalties for 3 Former PWG Activists

Patna: January 4, 2008

A fast track court in Patna on Friday awarded death penalties to the three members of the now-defunct People's War Group, a schism of the Maoist rebels, for their involvement in the 2004 massacre in Lahsuna in Masaurhi during which several people were killed for casting their votes in favor of Janata Dal (U).

Justice Om Prakash of the fast track court, however, ordered release of three accused in the lack of sufficient and credible evidence.

The carnage had taken place on May 18, 2004 when nearly a 100 armed Maoist guerillas swooped on Lahsuna village and shot them to death after dragging them out of their homes.

Those who were awarded the capital punishment are Sujit Kumar, Arvind Singh, and Manoj Singh. The court, however, set Umesh Singh, Sahdeo Singh, and Yogendra Singh free in the lack of sufficient evidence.

Patna Daily

CPI MAOIST PRESS RELEASE AND SELF CRICICAL DOCUMENT (Kannada)

DOWNLAOD CPI MAOIST PRESS RELEASE AND SELF CRICICAL DOCUMENT.

1-Download First Document

2-Second document

West Bengal, Jharkhand police to get rid of border jurisdiction

MIDNAPORE(WEST BENGAL): West Bengal and Jharkhand police have decided to get rid of the barrier of jurisdiction in adjoining Maoist-hit areas to take faster action against the Naxalites.

In the Maoist affected belt of six districts including three of Kolhan range of Jharkhand and three districts of West Bengal, policemen can now move freely into each other’s territory, West Midnapore Superintendent of Police R Rajsekharan, who attended the meeting said on Friday.

After launching an attack in one state, Maoist ultras usually flee to another through the forest covered border and the police fail to chase them due to the jurisdiction barrier.

But now, if a police station of West Bengal has some information on a Maoist activity, it could directly tip-off the respective police station in Jharkhand instead of informing Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Rajsekharan said.

The existing rule was that only a DIG level officer could pass on such information to another DIG level officer. But, by the time the information reaches from a police station to the DIG’s office of one state and from the DIG’s office to the police station concerned in the other, precious time gets lost and the ultras escape easily, police sources said.

The new system would reduce the time gap significantly, the sources said after the joint meeting of the DIG of Kolhan range of Jharkhand and his Midnapore range counterpart in West Bengal at Kharagpur in West Midnapore district on Friday.

Besides the DIGs, all superintendents of police, circle inspectors and officers-in-charge of the nine districts attended the meeting.

Times of India

An Open Appeal ..Release Prashant Rahi, a senior journalis

29.12.2007

An Open Appeal!!!

Dear friends and comrades ,

This is to inform you of the recent arrest of Prashant Rahi, a senior journalist of Uttarakhand, by the state police. Prashant was arrested on 15 ^th of this month in Dehradun and was allegedly charged of being a Maoist commander. The police secretly confined him for five days after which he was shown arrested from the forests of Hanspur Khatta on 21 ^st December. The police have charged him with various sections of IPC including 121, 121A, 124A, 153B, 120B. All the media carried the same version as stated by the police.

Just to give you a background, Prashant Rahi had been working in close association with the local people’s struggles in Uttarakhand since last 17 years. He has been a journalist by profession. Started his career from Himachal Times, moved on to The Statesman and worked many years covering people’s issues. He is a native of Maharashtra and pursued his education from Banaras Hindu University .

This incident is in continuance of the trend set by many innocent arrests in the last few months including that of Binayak Sen and some journalists in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh of targeting pro-people intellegentsia. The trend has become increasingly apparent in those parts of the country where people’s movement is strong.

We firmly believe that this state action is a part of the efforts being carried out by the various state governments to secure hefty amount of funds from the central government in the name of combating naxalism. For this, it becomes imperative for them to prove that the state is inflicted with this insurgency.

We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the arrest of Prashant Rahi and call upon all the concerned individuals, civil society organisations, journalist unions, writers unions, people’s movements and struggling groups to join hands in solidarity and support.

Rajendra Dhasmana (President, PUCL, Uttarakhand)

Manglesh Dabral (Poet and Journalist)

Pankaj Bisht (Editor, Samayantar)

Anand Swaroop Verma (Journalist and Human Rights Activist)

P.C. Tiwari (National Secretary, Indian Federation of Working Journalists)

Suresh Nautiyal (General Secretary, Uttarakhand Patrakar Parishad)

Anil Chaudhary (President, INSAF)

Jagdish Yadav (Photo Editor, Pioneer)

Harsh Dobhal (Managing Editor, Combat Law)

Shekhar Pathak, Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

Gautam Navlakha (Consulting Editor, Economic and Political Weekly)

Ashish Gupta (Asamiya Pratidin)

Anil Chamadia (Journalist)

Jaspal Singh Siddhu (UNI)

A.K. Arun (Editor, Yuva Samwad)

Madan Kashyap (Poet)

Pankaj Singh (Poet and Journalist)

Karuna Madan (Journalist)

Piyush Pant (Editor, Lok Samwad)

Sarvesh (Photo Journalist)

Panini Anand (Journalist, BBC Hindi)

Avinash (Journalist, NDTV India)

Bhupen Singh (Journalist, STAR News)

Sukla Sen (CNDP India)

Aanchal Kapur (Kriti Team)

Vijayan MJ ( Delhi Forum)

Sanjay Mishra (Special Correspondent, Dainik Bhaskar)

Prem Piram (Director, Jagar Uttarakhand)

Ashok Pandey (Poet)

Arvind Gaur (Director, Asmita Theatre Group)

Pankaj Chaturvedi (Poet)

Satyam Verma (Rahul Foundation)

Ranjit Verma (Advocate)

Bishambhar (Secretary, Roji Roti Bachao Morcha)

Ajay Prakash (Journalist, The Public Agenda)

Swatantra Mishra (Journalist, IANS)

Vandana (Special Correspondent, Nai Dunia)

Shree Prakash (INSAF)

Abhishek Srivastava (Freelance Journalist)

Rajeshwar Ojha (Asha Pariwar)

Raju (Human Rights Law Network)

Rajesh Arya (Journalist)

Kamta Prasad (Linguist and Translator)

Abhishek Kashyap (Writer)

Thakur Prasad (Managing Editor, Samprati Path)

Rajiv Ranjan Jha (Writer)

Srikant Dube (Journalist)

Rishikant (Journalist)

Pankaj Narayan(Journalist)

No ban on Maoists in Jharkhand means headache for police

Ranchi, Jan 6 (IANS) The Communist Party of India – Maoist is not an organisation banned in Jharkhand, leading to a headache for the police.

Jharkhand is one of the states badly hit by Maoist terror. But the absence of a ban means the police can rarely frame a strong case against the rebels.

In December 2007, the police caught two employees of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) allegedly giving Rs.2 million in protection money to a CPI-Maoist rebel. The rebel was also caught. But all three were soon out on bail, which they would not have been if CPI-Maoist had been a banned organisation.

The state government had earlier banned the Maoist Coordination Committee (MCC) and People’s War Group (PWG). But they merged into CPI-Maoist in September 204, which is not banned.

Maoists are active in 18 of the 24 districts of the state. The rebels have killed nearly 1,000 people in the last seven years.

IANS

Red alert in Kerala

Red alert in Kerala
Saturday January 5 2008 17:31 IST

M P Prashanth

In 1980, a group of four Naxalites from Andhra Pradesh entered into southern tip of Maharashtra which is now part of the ‘Dandakarnya region’. They were followed by six other small groups who went to Bastar, which was with Madhya Pradesh then. The mission of the teams was to spread the Karimnagar/Adilabad Movement in those areas.

After nearly three decades of sustained and well-orchestrated squad work, the Maoists are now a force to reckon with and are holding a parallel government in the ‘liberated zones.’ They have a support base of over 1.5 lakh with their own People’s Liberation Guerilla Army and people’s militia. (Details from People’s March, January 2006 issue).

This piece of information is enough to send a chill down the spine of Kerala police because there are enough indications that the Maoists in the state are trying to replicate what they had done in Dandakaranya and many other parts of the country.

The fact that senior leaders of the CPI (Maoists) from Andhra — politburo member Sende Raja Mouli, Tamil Nadu state secretary Sunderamurthy and central committee member Malli Raja Reddy — had made vists to the state is enough reason for the police to press the panic button. Raja Reddy, who was picked up by the Andhra police from a hideout in Ernakulam district, had told the media that his mission was to build the party in Kerala and prepare its people for a revolution.

Kerala has the history of high-profile Naxalite activities which include annihilation of class enemies, attacks on police stations, taking officials as hostage and public trial of ‘corrupt’ government servants. Of late, their activities have been confined to more symbolic protests like attacking offices of the Asian Development Bank and retail outlets of big Indian companies.

The CPI-ML (Naxalbari) and the CPI (Maoist), the two Maoist outfits in Kerala, have a very limited presence in the state. There are only a handful of CPI (Maoists) activists in Kerala who were keeping a low profile till now. The outfit came under the scanner after the arrest of Raja Reddy. The arrest points to the fact that they have been engaged in underground activities of organising people from various sectors like migrant labourers, tribals and landless people.

That the Maoists would wait patiently for the right opportunity to strike is evident from their documents on protracted people’s war. The document on ‘Urban Perspective’ details how to operate in cities where the ‘enemies’ are in full control. “In such a situation, where enemy is stronger, we cannot have a short-term approach of direct confrontation in order to achieve quick results,” the document says.

It further addes that the cadres should “avoid engaging the enemy” and that “we should act chiefly on the defensive.” The aim of the initial phase of people’s war, it said, would be protecting, preserving, consolidating and expanding the party forces.

It also calls for forming legal and open mass organisations and to have secret party cells working underground. The document asks the cadres to actively engage in festivals like Durga Puja and sneak into sports clubs and gymnasiums.

How far the Maoists have penetrated into the Kerala society is yet to be acsertained. There are many who believe that the presence of the Maoists in Kerala is only negligible and is blown out of proportion by the media and the police.

They believe that innumerable splits in the movement have made it only a symbolic presence. Lack of leaders have incapacitated the activities of CPI (Maoists), which is now dependent on squads from Andhra Pradesh for carrying out the activities. Many of those who led the movement have now disowned it.

But the police are not taking any chances. They arrested P Govindan Kutty, the editor of People’s March, the unofficial organ of the CPI (Maoists) and raided its office.
“Globalisation has made the lives of the people all over the country miserable and there are revolts from various corners. Maoists are offering resistannce at some places. But the government is raising the Maoist bogey to suppress all mass agitations,” says K N Ramachandran, general secretary of the CPI-ML (Kanu Sanyal) group.

Ramachandran’s reading is that the Maoists do not have the mass base without which no revolution is possible. And their activities amount to anarchism. “The Maoists have their base mainly among the adivasis. But Kerala is not Dandakaranya. What is needed now is a militant mass movement,” he says.

M N Ravunni, the general convener of Poraattom, believes that mass base alone would not suffice. “The CPM and the CPI have the mass base which does not serve any purpose. We need to revolutionise the masses.” Ravunni challenges the contention that people’s war is not possible in Kerala. “It is being tried even in USA. Then why Kerala should be an exception?”

Earlier ‘actions’ of the Naxalites in Kerala were devoid of any purpose. “Actions like attacking police stations were not linked to the Maoist military line. But now the Maoists have a clearer idea,” he says.

CPI-ML (Naxalbari) has some difference of opinion with CPI (Maoists). “But we have a friendly relationship. We want a principled unity of all revoutionaries in India and some moves in this regard is taking place at national and international level.

Both CPI (Maoists) and CPI-ML (Naxalbari) are the members of Revolutionary International Movement (RIM) and Co-ordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisation of South Asia (CCOMPOSA)

Newindpress

‘15,000-strong Maoist army posing threat’

T’PURAM: The Maoists who have grown into an army of over 15,000, with sophisticated weapons smuggled illegally from neighbouring states like Nepal, have become a major threat to the country, particularly in and around Jharkhand where the system of law and order is yet to mature, according to Union Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar.

In an exclusive interview to this website’s newspaper here on Saturday, the high-profile IAS officer from Kerala said his focus would now be on the North-East where the infiltration of Maoists was increasing day by day.

His observations gain importance against the background of the violence in Nandigram where organised Maoist activism challenged existing government institutions.

Chandrasekhar was the first Union Cabinet Secretary to visit the Naxal-prone areas in Jharkhand and moot a development initiative to counter the menace instead of using force.

Newindpress