Centre to send security experts to Midnapore

NEW DELHI - Union Home Ministry will send security experts to West Bengal’s West Midnapore District on Wednesday to probe the killing of over 25 policemen by Maoists on Monday evening.

The attack on the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp in Sealdah is being seen as the deadliest form of Naxal violence.

The team will review the current counter-Maoist strategy in West Bengal and seek to assist the state in keeping the morale of the forces intact.

Sources acknowledged the EFR unit was not fully trained to handle this kind of attack.

This morning, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said: “Every attack of this kind exposes the true nature and character of the CPI (Maoist). Their goal is to seize power. Their weapon is violence. No organisation or group in a democratic republic has the right to take to violence to overpower the established legal authority.”

“Unfortunately, this simple truth has escaped a number of well-meaning organisations that find “legitimacy” in the armed liberation struggle carried on by the CPI (Maoist),” he added.

In his statement Chidambaram said “While there are indications of failure in some aspects, only a thorough review will reveal how the police camp with adequate strength was overrun, when there was day light, by the CPI (Maoist).”

On Monday, in an unusually frank statement on the predicament of security forces doing duty in Naxal-hit areas, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the Supreme Court that police officers leave for duty every day with a death band around their heads.

Gopal Subramanium described the challenges faced by a police officer working in the tough terrain of Naxal areas, sandwiched between helpless tribals and “people who take law into their hands and terrorise villagers”. By Shreeraj Gudi(ANI)