Kolkata, Sep 26 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday night said the killings by Maoists in Junglemahal were targeted at derailing the peace initiative in the state.
“We gave them an opportunity to return to the mainstream. This is an effort to derail the peace initiative taken by the government,” Banerjee told a Bengali news channel in reaction to the murder of a Jharkhand political leader in West Midnapore district by suspected Maoists.
Condemning the killing of Rabindranath Basu alias Babu, general secretary of Jharkhand Janamukti Morcha, at Binpur in West Midnapore district, she said the government would not tolerate killing by Maoists.
“The administration has been asked to take steps so that law and order is maintained there,” the chief minister said.
“We cannot allow law and order to deteriorate,” Banerjee said and alleged that some Maoists sympathisers who stay in Kolkata instigate the cadres.
“They do not want development in Junglemahal. I will go there after the pujas. The Maoists should not think that I am afraid of them,” she said. PTI
