GJMM fire for CM blame on Shilda camp

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has strongly condemned chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s allegation that the Eastern Frontier Rifles personnel at the Shilda camp were responsible for their own deaths.

On February 15, 24 EFR personnel were gunned down by Maoists at Shilda in West Midnapore and 16 of those killed hailed from the Darjeeling hills.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said over the phone from Delhi: “We strongly condemn the chief minister’s statement in the Assembly yesterday. It is the state government’s responsibility to act on specific intelligence inputs. The EFR personnel act only on directions from their top brass.”

Bhattacharjee, while replying to a question by the leader of Congress Legislative Party Manas Bhunia on the intelligence failure at the Shilda camp, said: “There was a failure on the part of the leadership at the camp. If they (policemen at the camp) ignored the intelligence inputs, it was a serious mistake.”

The Morcha general secretary said the government had already admitted that the Shilda camp was located in a vulnerable place. “This makes it clear that the government (despite the knowledge) had even then not shifted the camp to a safer location.

“The government should stop the blame game and take the responsibility for the 24 deaths as our people were the ones to die,” he said.

Bhattacharjee had also said intelligence reports were not always sent to the home secretary and the director-general of police or the district police superintendents, indicating that intelligence was shared at camp levels also. A three-member committee headed by home secretary Ardhendu Sen was investigating whether the Shilda camp had any specific information from the district intelligence sources.

“It was improper for the chief minister to react even before the investigation led by the home secretary was over,” Giri said.

Earlier, the Morcha leadership had expressed its displeasure over the absence of senior ministers and dignitaries like the mayor of Siliguri when the bodies of the slain EFR personnel were brought by road from West Midnapore to Siliguri en route to their homes for their funeral.

The Telegraph