Saturday, December 15, 2007

West Bengal: Maoist's IED threat sends cops scurrying to classroom

KOLKATA, Dec. 15: Recovery of posters of CPI (Maoist) in three places in the city, including the state's administrative headquarters ~ Writer's Building, seems to have prompted the police authorities to send junior officers to classrooms to learn about the modern use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), which Maoist insurgents often use as part of their war against the state. A day after six posters of CPI (Maoist) were found on a wall of Writers' Building, the city police authorities have organised a special programme at Lalbazar today to make the cops aware about various uses of IED by Maoists insurgents.


The directorate of security and the chief minister's chief security officer, Mr Arvind Kumar Maliwal, who is considered to be an explosive expert, today delivered a lecture at Lalbazar today. He answered the queries of policemen regarding EID, said Mr Subrata Narayan Sarkar, the additional commissioner (I) of the city police. Officers-in-charge of police stations, assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners attended the programme. Mr Sarkar said that the presence of Maoist activists in the city has prompted the polic to sound a wakeup call to the junior officers.

He, however, refused to relate Mr Maliwal's visit to Lalbazar with recent recoveries of posters of CPI (Maoist) from Writers' Building, Presidency College and Coffee House. "Mr Maliwal's visit to Lalbazar was a scheduled one. He was requested to deliver a lecture on IED to make the city policemen aware of explosives being used by militant organisations," Mr Sarkar said. When asked whether the police was going to form a new squad to combat the Maoists, Mr Sarkar said that they have already formed a few specialised squads to deal with serious law and order situation in the city. Meanwhile, departmental proceedings against policemen, who were suspended for negligence were initiated today, the police said. The security at the Writers Building and other vital government structures has been heightened. Jawans of the Special Action Force were deployed today at the Writers' Buildings premises to thwart untoward incidents.

Statesman News Service

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