Morcha links CPM to Sibchu with aid from Shilda

Darjeeling, May 23,TT: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today said that from the discovery of the Insas rifle near a CPM office in West Midnapore yesterday “it looked like the Left party was behind the attack on the Shilda camp” just like it had a role in the Sibchu firing.

By levelling this allegation, the Morcha tried to justify its demand for a CBI inquiry into the police firing in Sibchu on the Dooars border that had killed three of its supporters earlier this year.

The members of the Morcha affiliated ex-servicemen’s association and the party’s voluntary squad of lathi-wielding youths, the Gorkhaland Personnel (GLP), too, brought out a rally today with a demand for CBI inquiry into the Sibchu firing.

An Insas rifle snatched from the Shilda camp during the Maoist attack has been dug out by villagers around 500 metres from a deserted CPM office in West Midnapore’s Enayetpur.

Police are probing if the erstwhile ruling party has had any links with the rebels. As many as 24 Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans were killed in the Maoist attack on the Shilda camp on February 15, 2010.

But two standout features — seen as “too perfect” — are making police officers ponder if the cache was planted in Enayetpur.

One, the arms were found along with a CPM flag. Two, the pit was freshly dug.

However Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: “Our people were killed at Shilda and we want justice. It looks like the CPM was behind the attack on the Shilda camp. No wonder, none of the CPM leaders were present to offer condolences to the bereaved families when the coffins were brought to Siliguri. Neither Ashok Bhattacharya who was then a minister, nor Saman Pathak, the Rajya Sabha member, or CPM ward commissioners were there to receive the bodies.”

Of the 24 personnel killed in the Shilda camp, 19 belonged to the hill community of which 13 people were residents of the Darjeeling hills. The rest of the six Gorkha personnel were from Jalpaiguri and West Midnapore districts.

The Morcha said it could not rule out the involvement of CPM cadres in the Sibchu police firing.

“Since police fatigues were also found in a CPM office (in East Midnapore), we believe that cadres might have been involved in the killings in Sibchu also as no police personnel would shoot at point blank range,” said Giri.

The indication was that alleged CPM cadres dressed as policemen had shot at point blank range at the three Morcha supporters at Sibchu on February 8.

The Morcha has requested the Trinamul Congress to conduct a “proper inquiry” into the CPM’s role in the Shilda incident.

“We would also request the new government to initiate a process to hand over the investigation of the Sibchu firing to the CBI,” said Giri.

Members of the Bharatiya Bhutburba Sainik Adra Sainik Morcha and the Gorkhaland Personnel also brought out a rally across the hills to demand a CBI inquiry into the firing.

The former jawans also demanded that the report prepared by M.L. Meena, a secretary with the state government, on the lathicharge on ex-servicemen in Siliguri on April 9, 2008, be made public.