M A I N   N E W S

Terrorists gun down five CPM men
Subhrangshu Gupta

Kolkata, August 18
Terrorists carrying AK 47 gunned down five CPM leaders inside their zonal party office in the Dhupguri tea gardens area of Jalpaiguri district in north Bengal last night.

At least 15 party workers were injured, five of them seriously, by the assassins’ bullets. They had been admitted to different hospitals in Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. The massacre occurred during an emergency meeting of the kisan samiti in the presence of some senior district leaders.

So far, no one has claimed the responsibility of the killing. But the police and the CPM leadership suspect that KLO activists could be behind the massacre. Senior police officers from Kolkata had rushed to north Bengal this morning to conduct a massive hunt in the area in search of the killers.

Today, the CPM called a bandh in Jalpaiguri-Cooch Behar and Siliguri as a mark of protest against the killings. CPM minister of Jalpaiguri, Mr Jogesh Burman, who has criticised the failure of the police in curbing criminal activities in the tea gardens area, himself is taking part in the bandh.

According to reports reaching the CPM party office at Alimuddin Street, and state government headquarters in Kolkata, some five-six young men, wearing uniforms of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) appeared in front of the zonal party office at Dhupguri when a closed-door meeting was going on in last evening.

They came in two motorbikes, carrying with them AK 47 and AK 46 and other weapons and explosives.

Two of them suddenly forced open the door and soon started firing at the party men, killing four persons on the spot. The leaders killed include Gopal Chaki, treasurer, zilla parisad, and district leaders, Ganesh Roy and Gossain Sil.

After the killing, the terrorists boarded the motorbikes and drove through the busy market areas. They fired freely in the air to make a safe escape for them to the adjoining border areas jungle in Bhutan. The injured people in the hospitals told the police they were so much surprised at the sudden attack, that they found themselves helpless and could hardly do anything to protect themselves.