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Red terror now stalks Punjab
State police seeks special Central assistance of Rs 100 crore to tackle Naxalism
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Red Spread

Areas shown in red under the influence of extreme-Left farmer organisations

Chandigarh, June 22
The Punjab Police has sought a special Central assistance of Rs 100 crore to build capacity to counter the ‘growing’ Maoist threat to the state. Unnerved by the increasing frequency of violent agitations, the state police has established a special intelligence wing to deal with Naxal-related issues and would now like to create special forces and equip them to deal with the emerging crisis.

Security agencies claim Maoists have entrenched themselves among several extreme-Left organisations which are taking on the state through a series of mass movements.

Top police functionaries claim that the CPI (Maoist), a banned organisation, has established a state and two zonal committees in Punjab. The zonal committees named the Ferozepur-Bathinda committee and the Sangrur-Moga committee cover the Malwa region where a conglomeration of 16 Left organisations have become a formidable force in the last one decade.

n Maoists entrenched in extreme-Left farmer organisations. n They have established state and zonal committees. n Malwa region comprising Ferozepur, Moga, Bathinda, Mansa and Sangrur districts worst affected. n Nine “Maoists” arrested, two with weapons.

The police claims to have intercepts to prove that leaders of these organisations of farmers, farm labourers and students, take orders from their Maoist “masters”.

The organisations named by Punjab Police sources for ‘harbouring’ Maoists include the BKU - Ugrahan, Dakonda, Ekta and Krantikari groups, Punjab Kisan Union, two Kisan Sangharsh Committee groups, Kirti Kisan Sabha, Punjab Kisan Union, Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, Dehati Mazdoor Sabha, Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union and two groups of Pendu Mazdoor Union, Mazdoor Mukti Morcha and Krantikari Pendu Mazdoor Union.

The organisations, however, vehemently deny they have anything to do with the Naxals, alleging the state is creating a bogey because it has become jittery over the spate of mass movements launched by them and want to suppress them by branding them Naxals. However, BKU (Ugrahan) leader Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, when questioned, was more candid. “We cannot say there are no Maoists in our organisation. We cannot rule out that but the Maoists do not control us,” he told The Tribune.

Recent reports have also been disconcerting. The police recently arrested Sanjiv Mintu of the Krantikari Pendu Mazdoor Union and charged that he was a zonal committee member of the CPI (Maoists). He is in jail. Surjit Singh Phul of the BKU (Krantikari) was arrested earlier on similar charges. A total of nine alleged Maoist sympathisers have been arrested including one “permanent” member Harnek Singh, who was arrested with a revolver from Ferozepur.

Things have come to a head with state DGP P S Gill coming out with a statement accusing the Leftist farmer organisations of being Naxalite fronts. The police cite pro-Naxalite posters in Bathinda, Barnala and Dhuri, which condemn Operation Greent Hunt launched against the Naxalites, as evidence. State Home Secretary A R Talwar says Naxal philosophy is being propounded by the Leftist organisations, though the movement in the state is yet to become violent.

Former CM Capt Amarinder Singh says he had reports of naxalite linkages (Chandra Pulla Reddy group) with the Leftist organisations during his tenure between 2002-2007. When asked what could be the likely solution, he said for Punjab it had to be economic growth. “The state has an abysmal economic growth of 4.7 pc”, he said, and this must go up.

(To be continued)