‘SORRY’ CAN’T HEAL THE WOUNDS

06-06-2010

Sushmita Dutta

A week after the deadly Gyaneshwari Express tragedy, in which more than 140 innocent civilians died, Bapi Mahato, the man said to be behind this massacre said ‘SORRY’ and accepted responsibility. He also had the audacity to say that the target was a goods trains and not the unfortunate passenger train. The ‘Naxalbari’ no longer for poor It is deplorable that the Naxal problem in India has taken such a mammoth shape. A struggle that started way back in 1967 in the quite little hamlet called Naxalbari in West Bengal has tread a long path, but seems now to have lost its way. An armed uprising by the founders of the Naxalism- Charu Mazumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal- was initiated to provide the farmers their lands. At one point of time, they were referred to as the ‘Robinhoods of India’. Forty three years have gone past and the Naxal movement is now spread in over 220 districts across 20 Indian states. But the movement has never been more ‘red’ than now. Blood is being shed like water, turning the naxal-infested states into a war zone. Armed jawans and helpless men, women and children have been slaughtered at the altar of Naxalism. Now this movement is being termed as ‘the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country’.

The ‘Red Corridor’ has blood on it In the last few years, the Naxal movement has aggravated and spread to other states also. The main among which are Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, Orissa – also called the ‘red corridor’. The Naxals have been very active in this area. Last year, they did something unprecedented. In April 2009, just days ahead of the Jharkhand polls, the Naxals hijacked a train in Jharkhand’s Latehar district. Around 300 Naxals surrounded the Mugalsarai bound train and held the passengers for hours. The passengers onboard had a harrowing experience. Year 2010 has been even worse. The Naxalites created mayhem in every part of the red corridor. In the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, a Naxal hotbed, they killed 75 CRPF jawans. Around 1000 Naxalites ambushed 120 CRPF jawans in a meticulously planned operation. The CRPF just walked into the Naxal trap and were brutally slaughtered. It was one the deadliest and most daring attacks by the Naxals in recent times. Their very next attack was equally terrible. They attacked a civil bus to kill a few policemen, but this time innocents were also killed. The bus was travelling from Gadiras to Bhusaras in the same Dantewada district. The bus had a few Special Police Officers. To avenge the few policemen, they blew the entire bus by planting IED inside the metal road. Most of the deceased were innocents.

The ‘Gyaneshwari Express’ blown-up mercilessly And it seems like there is no stopping for the Naxals. They recently derailed the Mumbai bound Gyaneshwari Express, which collided with a goods train in Jhargram, West Bengal, killing innocent men and women onboard. Till now the death toll has crossed the 140 mark and is expected to go up. The victims on that train had nothing to do with Naxals or their agenda. They were simple people travelling from one part of India to the other. After this incident people are already really scared to move in these red corridors. And to top it all, when the Naxal leader Bapi Mahato was confronted for this, all he could say was SORRY.

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