New Delhi: Samajwadi Party on Friday alleged that
Maoist leader Kishenji was killed in a "fake encounter" in
West Bengal and said Naxalism cannot end through "mass
massacre" of Naxal leaders.
"The way reports of Kishenji's killings have come out, it
does not look like Kishenji was killed in an encounter.... It
is a fake encounter," Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh told
reporters outside Parliament.
He said, "You cannot end Naxalism through mass massacres
of Naxal leaders. You cannot end Naxalism while sitting in
power. There are other ways of ending it."
The Samajwadi Party general secretary alleged that West
Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee "did not fulfil all the
promises she made to Naxal leaders before coming to power".
"After Naxal leaders started killing Trinamool Congress
leaders, she is now trying to end Naxalism with the help of
police force, administration and Rapid Action Force. Now one
after the other, Naxal leaders are being killed," he said.
He said that the earlier path of resolving issues
through talks adopted by Mamata Banerjee was right.
Singh claimed he had opposed hanging of Naxal leaders
many years ago and had sought commuting of their sentence to
life term. He lamented that Naxalism has now spread in 350
districts across the country, against 10 districts only a few
years ago.
PTI
First Published: Friday, November 25, 2011, 16:02