Mamata

Calcutta, Feb. 15: Mamata Banerjee today demanded a central probe into the Maoist attack and suggested that it could also be “a handiwork” of the “Marxists”.

“The Centre should investigate whether the biggest ever attack on a camp of security personnel (in Bengal) was the handiwork of Maoists or Marxists,” the railway minister said over the phone from Delhi tonight.

She said the Centre should probe “all angles to ascertain who all were behind the attack” and “give exemplary punishment to the culprits”.

“I can’t understand why the state intelligence agencies had no information about the attack on the camp. The state government cannot shirk its responsibility,” she added.

The Trinamul Congress chief also alleged that some of the “recent provocative statements” of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were responsible for the tragedy.

She did not elaborate on which statement she was referring to. However, a Trinamul general secretary felt the chief minister’s call for resistance to violence by Trinamul activists was “provocative”.

On Saturday, Bhattacharjee had told a rally in Cooch Behar that Left supporters would not sit quiet if attacked by Trinamul. “They will strike back against Trinamul men creating anarchy. I ask you to get together and resist them,” he had said.

The same night, Mamata had called Maoists “cowards” who would scoot in the face of resistance.

“The Maoists are out to stop development work by resorting to the use of arms. They are cowards and if you (the people) resist, they will be forced to get back into their hole,” she had told a railway programme in Midnapore town.

Trinamul junior minister Mukul Roy said today’s attack had exposed the holes in the state government’s “intelligence network”.

“The state is fully responsible for the death of the EFR personnel.”

He added that “Mamatadi” had “kept the Union home ministry informed about the incident”.