For Scribd

The Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express taken hostage by armed tribals at Banstala Halt Station near Jhargram on Tuesday was no mere blockade. It was rather a pre-planned move by Maoists using the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) at the front. The move has laid bare that PCPA’s links with Maoists, which is why Maoist squads took position amid the neighbouring Panisole forests to protect the agitators on the railway tracks. Villagers smelt a rat when an elephant herd came out of the forests some days ago and entered the Jhargram town. The local belief is that these huge mammals can’t stay inside the forests in the event of any movement of alien creatures. They could be right given the date and timing of the siege. Maoist leader Kishanji had scripted the strike in a bid to demoralise the security forces who were conducting raids in the villages of West Midnapore, soon after they had to give a safe passage to Kishanji and his armed squad during the release of Sankrail police officer Atindranath Datta held hostage by Maoists. Mark the timing. The “blockade” was planned on a day when a sizeable section of the district police had fanned out along the 7km stretch from Panskura in East Midnapore to Chowringhee, the gateway to Midnapore town, to oversee the route by which chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti, director general of police Bhupinder Singh, and five other senior IAS officers were coming to Midnapore from Kolkata. A huge police force was also deployed to escort the convoy from Chowringhee to Midnapore town. PCPA supporters gathered at the railway tracks minutes before the Rajdhani Express was about to arrive. Strangely, no one in the district administration had an inkling of this impromptu blockade. And more the high-profile train chugged in without any RPF inside compartments. The Maoist script was perfect till then. They got the mileage they wanted. Confusion began after the agitators were at bay over their future course. PCPA leader Santosh Patra went on air making incoherent claims. On one occasion, he said that agitators would release the train by the next day, and then made amends to the release plan saying they would release the driver by 5pm, and finally claimed that no one was taken hostage. Later, Patra said that they wanted railway minister Mamata Banerjee to come to the spot