Maoist violence hit Lalgarh villagers throng to collect relief

Lalgarh (West Bengal), June 26 (ANI): Authorities in Lalgarh village of West Bengal, which was recently liberated by the police from the Maoists, have set up relief camps to provide rations to the besieged residents.

Hundreds of villagers were seen queued up outside the relief camps set at block office.

"Maoists had cut off the roads around the village. There was no transport along the highways. My husband is in transportation business but had no work because of the road blockades. There is nothing to survive on, so I have come here to take home some rice," Chaya Das, a villager said.

There were at least 150,000 villagers staying in Lalgarh, many of them had deserted their homes in the wake of the stand off between the security forces and the Maoist rebels.

The Central Government had on Monday banned and formally labelled the Maoist insurgents as a terrorist group, hoping it would give security forces more enforcement powers after the rebels briefly created a "liberated zone" in West Bengal.

The move will allow authorities to arrest members of the Maoist party even if they have not been involved in rebel violence. (ANI)