Lalgarh: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday termed as "not correct" the killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad who, she claimed, had agreed to hold talks with the government on behalf of the Naxals.
Azad, who was a member of the CPI (Maoists) politburo and a spokesperson for the insurgents, was killed by police in an encounter in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh on July 2. "I feel the way Azad was killed is not correct. Swami Agnivesh has made him agree to hold talks (with the government). What happened was not correct. I feel the process (for holding talks with the Maoists) should start," she told a rally here.
High drama followed the rally in the Naxal hotbed as the Trinamool chief got stuck in a traffic jam near Lalgarh on her return from the meeting venue. Her party accused the state government of deliberately blocking roads.
The CPM has been accusing her of being hand in glove with the Maoists. But Mamata claims the rally is not Trinamool's and that it's being held under the banner of an apolitical forum. The issue figured in Parliament also, with the Left demanding to know why the government was silent.
Four PCPA workers were arrested from the rally even as the PCPA workers were seen in large numbers at the rally. Maoist leader Kishenji had also called upon his comrades to attend the rally.
Social activist Agnivesh, who is an interlocutor between the government and the Left extremists, also attended the rally. "We pay respect to his soul from this meeting," she said of the top Maoist leader. Agnivesh, on his part, demanded a judicial inquiry into the killing, stating that his demand for a probe was rejected by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.
"Subsequently, I spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who assured me that an inquiry will be held. But there has been no order for an inquiry till today," he told a rally called under the banner of the 'Santras Birodhi Mancha' (Anti-Terror Platform) organised by the Trinamool chief.
Agnivesh also demanded a probe into the killings of People's Committee Against Police Atrocities leaders Lalmohan Tudu and Sidhu Soren in West Bengal. Stating that he was against violence by the Maoists, Agnivesh demanded, "If they have killed people claiming they were police informers, it should also be probed."
He said 'Santras Birodhi Manchas' would be formed countrywide and a round table organised to deliberate on the root cause of the Maoist problem.
(With inputs from PTI)
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