Maoists attack police camp soon after truce offer, 1 dead

KOLKATA - Maoists attacked a camp housing security personnel in West Bengal late Monday night, just hours after their leader Kishenji offered a 72-hour ceasefire to the government. One suspected Maoist was killed in the ensuring gunfight, police said.

According to police officials, Maoists attacked the camp housing local police and paramilitary forces at Katapahari in West Midnapore district around 10.30 p.m.

The security personnel — in the camp that is on a hillock surrounded by thick forests — retaliated and the gunfight went on for around two hours.

Local television news channels reported three casualties in the gunfight, but West Midnapore Superintendent of Police Manoj Verma told IANS on phone Tuesday morning: “We have found only one body and that is unidentified. We are continuing a search around the camp.”

The TV channels also reported that the body was of Lalmohan Tudu, a leader of the Peoples’ Commitee Against Police Atrocities, the group that sprung up in the district’s Lalgarh area late 2008 and gave a huge fillip to Maoist activities in the region.

But there was no confirmation from the authorities about the identity of the man killed. The authorities said none of the security personnel had been hurt in the attack.

The timing of the attack — so soon after the ceasefire offer by top Maoist leader Kishenji — caused confusion in the state police headquarters, with some officials taking it as a sign that Maoists could not be trusted, while others said it indicated a right in the rebel ranks.