West Bengal situation worries home ministry

On the eve of home minister P Chidambaram’s visit, senior officials in the security establishment admitted on Sunday that the situation in West Bengal was worrisome. They said there were more than 2,000 Maoists in the state.

Worse, Bengal has become a transit point for arms suppliers in the northeast, primarily Assam, to meet the demands of Maoists in Jharkhand and Orissa, the officials said.

Seeing the deteriorating ground situation in the state, the government has, for the first time, decided to launch a full-fledged coordinated operation by the paramilitary and police.

“We are so far not on the ground. Central forces are in the state, but the extent of operations is not much. There are pockets where we carry out operations, but coordination between states has to improve,” a senior home ministry official, who will accompany Chidambaram to Kolkata on Monday to meet chief ministers of Maoist-affected states, said.

Sources said apart from country-made weapons, security forces had recovered Chinese small arms, rifles and rockets from Maoists in Lalgarh.

“We have found similar rockets in Assam and in Jammu and Kashmir. We fear they are coming from northeast militant groups,” an official said, adding that Bengal was the only state in the red corridor to use rockets for attacks in 2009. 

In an year-long effort, the state has arrested over 600 Maoists, around 270 of them from Lalgarh alone, 20 kg of explosives, gelatin sticks, grenades and 34 unexploded improvised explosive devices have also been seized.    

The Centre has planned a joint operation with Jharkhand, Orissa and Bengal because rough estimates suggest there are at least 3,000 Maoists in Jharkhand, second only to Chhattisgarh.