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| Operation Green Hunt |
The “pre-planned operation” by the gang believed to number around 60 was carried out for over almost four hours from 7.45pm in Purulia’s Jhalda, at the base of the Ayodhya Hills where several Maoist camps have come up in recent months.Rebels posters left behind next to the bodies suggested the Bloc activists had been targeted as they were suspected to be police informers, and as part of the ruling Left Front, were seen as backers of the wider security forces’ operations against the guerrillas.
“Protest against those with Operation Green Hunt and Left Front and Congress leaders,” one poster said. Another said: “Police torture of the public has to stop, otherwise extreme punishment will be given to Left Front leaders.”
Left Front chairman Biman Bose condemned the bloodletting Operation Green Hunt but, for the first time, bracketed the Congress with Trinamul, the party he and his CPM colleagues have often accused of being in league with the Maoists. He made the allegation despite the Purulia posters making it clear that the Congress would be one of the rebel targets in Operation Green Hunt: on December 17.
