CPI(M) using ''harmads'' for killings: Mamata Banerjee

Accusing the CPI(M) of resorting to the politics of terror, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today blamed the Left party for the gunning down of six villagers at Lalgarh saying it was utilising its 'harmads' as a killing machine.

"They [(CPI(M)] are claiming that we are doing politics with dead bodies. But they are doing the politics of killing and terror. Let them stop it, we will also not parade bodies," Banerjee, who took out a procession here with the bodies of three party workers killed in Burdwan district yesterday, told a rally.

Banerjee said chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had taken exception to the word 'harmad' (pirates and looters) used by home minister P Chidambaram in his letter to him on law and order in the state.

"But those who are resorting to such killings cannot be called anything else but harmads," she said before leaving for Lalgarh earlier in the day.

Banerjee said she was on the streets to seek justice from the people as the state government had failed to deliver it.

"We believe in democracy. We want people to give a fitting reply to CPI(M)-sponsored terror through ballots. We don't want power at the cost of people's blood," she said in a reference to the ensuing assembly elections in the state.

Banerjee said that her party would not call a bandh to protest the killings, but would condemn it through a 'dhikkar diwas' (condemnation day) tomorrow.