Suspected Maoist guerrillas killed two workers of the ruling party in India's West Bengal state and abducted three other supporters of the party, even as a "supreme" Maoist leader surfaced after a gap of nearly 25 years, media reports said Thursday.Bodies of two members of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the leading partner in the state's ruling coalition of leftwing parties, were found in West Midnapore district since Wednesday night, the NDTV network reported.
While one worker was shot dead, the other was hacked to death and the bodies were found in forested areas in the region some 170 kilometres south-west of state capital Kolkata, the report said. Three party workers were abducted by tribals supporting the Maoists in the restive district on Thursday. The district has been witnessing unrest since November last year after Maoists started attacking the Communist politicians alleging that the state government had ordered police atrocities on the locals.
The agitation started after police raided homes of tribals shortly after West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya escaped a landmine blast triggered by the Maoists. In June, government troops started an offensive after the Maoists and the tribal People's Committee Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) which backs the rebels, claimed to have "liberated" Lalgarh, a main town in the district.
Meanwhile, "Supreme" Maoist leader Muppalla Laxman Rao, alias Ganpati, who had been in disguise for 25 years, surfaced to address Maoist cadres at an undisclosed location in the Dandakaranya region in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, news channels reported.
The images broadcast on local television created a flutter as these were the first pictures of Ganpati since he went underground 25 years ago. One of India's most wanted militants, Ganpati is one of the founding members of the left-wing insurgency in.