THE BUNGALOW THAT A COMRADE BUILT

A two-storeyed house being built by CPM Lalgarh zonal committee secretary Anuj Pandey and his relatives became the symbol of what the Maoists termed “exploitation of peasants” and was partly demolished. Villagers converged on the house in Dharampur, beating drums and chanting: “Come and watch how a zamindar’s house made with money sucked from poor peasants is being demolished.” Then they started breaking down parts of the house. The first-floor balcony railing was ripped out, the boundary wall on the roof demolished, the marble floor dug up and all doors and windows were smashed. Pandey, along with his two brothers, owns 40 bighas in the area — an enviable possession in a district where Bengal’s poorest of the poor live. Pandey, a CPM wholetimer who earns Rs 1,500 a month, said he was building the house along with his brothers, one of whom deals in agri-products business. “The house is not yet complete,” Pandey said. “They targeted my house because I stood up to the Maoists and stopped their advance beyond Lalgarh.” With dusk descending, the villagers suspended the demolition.“We’ll complete it later,” Maoist Lalgarh leader Bikash said. Picture: Swarup Mondal

Lalgarh, June 15: Bengal police today deserted Dharampur, leaving the 30-year bastion of the CPM to the mercy of Maoists who unleashed a rampage apparently in the making at least since 2007.

The Maoists had a free run of the West Midnapore village through the day, tearing down party and police establishments before withdrawing to their staging post in Lalgarh that is out of bounds for law-enforcement.

The stage was set for the Maoist rampage when police personnel posted in camps on the outskirts of Lalgarh deserted their posts late last night following the murder of three CPM activists in Dharampur, around 11km from Lalgarh town.

“We have no orders to open fire. So we had no option but to get away,” said a policeman who had left the Dharampur camp. “If we had been confronted by the armed Maoists, what could we have done? In areas they dominate, they are surrounded by hundreds of villagers. So even if we had flouted orders and fired in self-defence, unarmed villagers may have been killed.”

Around midnight last night, 320 policemen left their camps in Dharampur, Ramgarh (which falls in Lalgarh), Belatikuti and Koima.

The field clear, thousands of villagers from Lalgarh, where the police have been unable to enter since November 2008, this morning swept into areas known as CPM strongholds.

Under the supervision of armed CPI (Maoist) cadres, the villagers burnt down the police camps at Ramgarh and Koima and partly demolished the home of a CPM leader. (Picture and details in box)

Around 50 armed Maoists, carrying mostly .303 rifles snatched from policemen and single-barrel rifles, were part of the hordes that marched into Dharampur after the police left. None of the known leaders of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, the outfit spearheading the villagers’ protest, could be spotted among the crowd.

“So far, we had kept ourselves restricted to Lalgarh, but now we are making other areas here a part of the liberated zone,” said Bikash, who is in charge of the operations of the Maoists in Lalgarh. “This had been part of our long-term plan and now is the time to put the plan into operation.”

An AK-47 slung across his shoulder, Bikash oversaw the demolition operations today.

But those supposed to enforce the law appeared to be cut off from the ground. Arnab Ghosh, the deputy superintendent of police, operations, based in Lalgarh and in charge of all these camps, said: “I was not aware of this (the desertion of police posts). I only got to know of it at 1 this morning, an hour after they had left their posts.”

“Our victory lies in getting hold of Dharampur, which has been a CPM stronghold for over 30 years,” Bikash said.

“In West Midnapore, we first consolidated our base in Belpahari, Banspahari and then Bhulabheda,” he added. “By 2007, once we were on a sure footing in these areas, we decided to move into neighbouring Lalgarh and begin working among the people.”

In a year, the Maoists had covered “reasonable” ground, but were still waiting to bring the area in its complete grip. The “spark” was provided in November 2008 by police atrocities after a mine explosion on the chief minister’s route.

“We grabbed it. The issue helped generate a lot of goodwill for us in Lalgarh,” Bikash said. “Having stopped the police from entering the area, we brought in members of our action squad from Jharkhand and Orissa and we have trained about 400 youths of Lalgarh in handling arms.”

The next “logical step” for the Maoists was to extend their reach. The choice was the CPM stronghold of Dharampur, which was putting up “maximum” resistance to the Maoists. “Last week, we had heard that the CPM there was getting arms and outsiders to fight us. So we jumped to strike,” Bikash said.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not comment in public, though the government’s hands-off policy came under attack from Left politicians.

Chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said “everything possible” was being done. Told about the burning down of the Dharampur CPM office, he said: “Ask the party.”