Kolkata: Demanding a Central probe into
the armed attack on a paramilitary force camp at Sildha in
West Midnapore district, Railway Minister and Trinamool
Congress chief Mamata Banerjee blamed intelligence
failure of the state government for the incident.
"Centre should probe the attack to determine if it was
the handiwork of the Maoists or the Marxists that caused the
biggest-ever attack on camp of security personnel at Sildha,"
Banerjee told a TV channel from Delhi.
She said that Centre should probe all aspects of the
attack and exemplary punishment should be given to the
attackers.
"I can't understand why the state intelligence had no
prior information that led to armed attack, blasting, setting
fire to the camp, opening fire on personnel and looting all
arms...I want to know whose responsibility was there to
protect the camp?," she said.
Banerjee alleged that Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee's "provocative speeches" in the recent past
might be responsible for the incident, adding "the state
government can't shirk its responsibility."
"Centre should seriously look into the incident and ask
the state government as to why it did not take any preemptive
measure to protect the jawans," she said.
Chidambaram had a meeting here on February 9 to draw
up a joint strategy to counter the Maoists in which chief
ministers of West Bengal and Orissa, deputy chief ministers of
Jharkhand and top officers from Bihar participated.
-PTI
First Published: Monday, February 15, 2010, 23:53