CPI-M leader shot dead by Maoists in West Bengal

KOLKATA - Suspected Maoists shot dead a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district Monday, police said.

Ananta Mukherjee, member of CPI-M’s Belpahari zonal committee, was shot dead in front of Silda high school in Jhargram in broad daylight. He was rushed to nearby Jhargram sub-divisional hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Jhargram police chief Praveen Tripathi said: “A group of six armed ultra-Left rebels, who had their faces covered, attacked Ananta Mukherjee this afternoon around 1.10 p.m.”

“A clerical staff at the school, Mukherjee was dragged out of the school by the Maoists who snatched the automatic firearms from his two private security guards. He was later shot at in full public view,” he said.

According to a senior police officer, Mukherjee was eliminated by the Maoists as he was one of the CPI-M leaders spearheading the anti-Maoist movement in the Junglemahal (forested Maoist affected areas of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia).

Mukherjee’s name featured in the Maoist hit list last year and after that the CPI-M district leadership persuaded the police administration to provide him security as well as engaging personal security guards for him, said the officer.

Maoists also blew up the CPI-M’s Dakhinshole local committee office in Jhargram. However, no casualty was reported as the party office was lying abandoned since the past few months.