CPI-M concerned over arrest of 2 Maoists from Trinamool camp

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Expressing concern over arrest oftwo Maoists from a Trinamool Congress camp in West Bengal, theCPI(M) today said the incident sent out a "chilling message"that the "highest leadership" of that party was doingeverything to aid and abet extremists.

"Yesterday''s incident sends out a chilling message thatone constituent of the ruling coalition at the Centre is inleague with the Maoists.

"So much so that the highest leadership of that party isdoing everything to aid, abet and facilitate joint operationswith forces that the Prime Minister designates as the singlebiggest threat to internal security," senior CPI(M) leaderSitaram Yechury said in a letter to Home Minister PChidambaram.

"One cannot escape an uneasy feeling that the noise overthe ''armed camps'' has helped the brazen activities of theTrinamool-Maoist nexus," he said pointing to TC''s charge thatCPI(M) was running such camps in the state.

He said the CRPF search operations in "all those so-called ''armed camps'', as listed by the opposition (Trinamool)in the court, have revealed no ''arms''. But only people whohave been evicted from their hearth and home were found inthose camps."

The two Maoists � Amiya Mahato and Asim Mahato � werearrested yesterday in a raid on a "so-called relief camp runby the Trinamool Congress at the Municipal Guest House inMidnapur town".

Besides several cases registered against them, the two arealleged to have been involved in the attack on the EFR camp inSilda in February last year om which over two dozen jawanswere "gruesomely murdered by the Maoists".

One of them also was very close to Kishanji and acted ashis personal guard and courier, Yechury said.

"More startling is the fact that the Trinamool Congressleadership with its local activists tried their level best tostop the police in their action to nab the wanted Maoist squadmembers.

"Not only that, your colleague the Hon''ble RailwayMinister has tried to trivialise the Silda massacre in hereffort to shield these Maoist killers by disputing theirMaoist credentials," Yechury alleged.

Maintaining that the the Maoist-TMC nexus has become"brazenly pronounced" in the run-up to the coming Assemblyelections, he said PCPA activists were present at a meetingorganised in West Bengal by the Trinamool a couple of days agoand attended among others by Union Ministers like ShishirAdhikari.

"We would like to recollect that on the floor of the RajyaSabha itself, you had designated the PCPA as a frontorganisation of the Maoists," Yechury told Chidambaram in theletter.