‘Action on armed camps must’
The Centre on Monday said that the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has its task cut out to take action against “armed camps’’ existing in the state and reinstate law and order in such areas. Union home minister P. Chidambaram said that some arms have been recovered from “local CPI(M) offices’’, including the
house of a known CPI(M) supporter. It may be recalled that the previous CPI(M)-led Left Front government had vociferously denied allegations of “armed camps’’ existing in the state. Reacting to Mr Chidambaram’s observations made at a press conference, CPI(M) central committee member Nilotpal Basu accused the home minister of “lending his voice to a campaign being run by the Trinamul to create violence in the state’’.
Mr Chidambaram said since May 14, a day after the results of West Bengal Assembly polls, the police have conducted about 100 raids and recovered 1,109 firearms and 11,088 rounds of ammunition from West Midnapore district. He said over 140 people have been arrested. While some arms have been recovered from CPI(M) offices , some have been shown “unclaimed”. On May 22, an AK-56 and an Insas rifle were among the recoveries from Kotwali police station area. The Insas was one of the weapons looted from the Silda camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles in 2010, he said.
“It is very shocking that the home minister is not talking about Maoists of whom he was so vociferous. He must know that it is not the police but the Trinamul cadres who are ransacking our party offices and planting arms,” Mr Basu said.
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