CPM leader Niranjan Deb Singha’s house after the Maoist raid. Picture by Swarup Mondal

Salboni, Dec. 25: About 25 armed Maoists today descended on two villages in Salboni and set fire to the homes of two CPM leaders who had organised a protest against the rebels yesterday.

Before leaving the Debagram panchayat area in West Midnapore, the Maoists demanded the dismantling of a police camp at Kalaimuri in Salboni. They said they wanted a health centre in the area, not a police camp.

CPM leaders — Debagram panchayat pradhan Niranjan Deb Singha and Kamalakanta Deb Singha — sneaked out with their families just before the rebels descended on their homes this morning.

Police said they did not know about the raid so did not send their men to the area. “Our camp is 5km from the villages and by the time we reached the spot around 9am, everything was over,” a police official said, adding raids were on to arrest the Maoists.

Residents of Madhupur, where Niranjan stayed about 175km from Calcutta, said a procession of 100 people descended on the village around 8am.

At least 25 of them were of a Maoist armed squad. There were a few women with guns, the villagers said.

A local CPM leader alleged that the others in the nearly 100-strong procession were Trinamul Congress and Jharkhand Party (Aditya) activists.

“Around 100 men and a few women came to our village this morning. They began grilling us about who had joined the CPM’s rally yesterday. They slapped some of us and forced many to join their procession,” said Tapas Deb Singha, a tea seller in Madhupur.

The Maoists first went to the house of Niranjan and ransacked it. They brought a cycle, a motorbike and a small irrigation pump out of the house, set them on fire and then set the house ablaze. They razed the home of Kamalakanta, the CPM leader in neighbouring Chanchgari the same way.

The Maoists then led the villagers to the nearby Tetuljuri forests and after shouting slogans demanding the withdrawal of the police camp, they fled.

The CPM’s Sijua local committee secretary, Bikash Ukil, said local Trinamul and Jharkhand Party (Aditya) supporters were among the attackers.

Madhupur and Chanchgari are close to Lalgarh, where tribals dug up roads and cut off the area for over a month protesting police atrocities.