Maoists call bandh as deadline ends

Maoist rebels in West Bengal have called a shutdown in the Jungalmahal region on Saturday, in response to chief minister Mamata Banerjee's tough talking on starting up a peace dialogue and giving them a seven day deadline a week ago.

The rebels on Wednesday had said they would observe a bandh in the three districts of Bankura, Purulia and worst affected West Midnapore and as a result security has been heightened there.

The Maoists reportedly took offence to Mamata calling them as supari killers (contract killers) at a rally in Jungalmahal.

The bandh was called on a day the deadline of seven days set by Mamata Banerjee to stop violence ends.

Mamta Banerjee on Saturday last had set a seven-day deadline to the Maoists to give up violence and join peace talks.

Later she said she would only initiate dialogue if the rebels stop killing and brandishing their arms.

On Tuesday, the government-appointed interlocutors for a peace initiative with the Maoists, met Mamata Banerjee.

The chief minister is understood to have told them in no uncertain terms that the joint operation in Jungalmahal area can be halted only if the rebels first shun violence.

Media reports said Mamata also wanted the peace commitment of the Maoists in writing.

Sujato Bhadra, the interlocutor appointed by the government, after meeting Mamata however told reporters in state secretariat Writers´ Buildings that the talks have not broken down.

"Dialogue process is on and will be continued," said Bhadra.

On Saturday last, Mamata during her visit to the Maoist-affected Junglemahal in West Midnapore said she was running out of patience with the rebels.

"I am giving you people seven days. You decide what to do," she said.

Banerjee slammed the Maoists and said that she is ready for talks, as offered by the rebels, but the Maoists need to give up arms.

"Talks and bloodshed cannot go hand in hand with each other at the same time," she said last Saturday.

The Maoists had earlier sent a ceasefire offer to the government through Sujato Bhadro, the interlocutor.

The visit of Mamata to Jungalmahal on Saturday, which is her second since swearing in as the Chief Minister this year in May and the first since a Maoist offer for a ceasefire, came in the wake of growing deadly attacks against Banerjee's party workers by the insurgents.

Demanding an immediate halt "in letter and spirit" to the joint force operations in Junglemahal, the Maoists have offered to give up arms for a month but the string of attacks on Trinamool Congress workers have done little to debase the distrust between the two sides.

Supposedly fighting for the rights of indigenous tribals and the rural poor, Maoists are active in several states in central and eastern India and often target police and government officials, killing at least 1,174 rebels, troops and civilians last year alone.

Over one-third of India´s 626 administrative districts are affected by the four-decade old insurgency, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as the country´s biggest internal security challenge.