PC's claim of armed camps baseless: CPI(M)

Kolkata, 1 Sept: The CPI(M) today dismissed as baseless union home minister P Chidambaram's claim that there were camps of armed cadres of the party in Bengal's West Midnapore district and said such statements were a compulsion of coalition politics.

"It is baseless. The home minister has made the statement in Delhi simply because of political compulsion and to divert attention from the Azad controversy," CPI(M) central committee member Md Salim told reporters here.

Selim said the CPI(M) had set up some camps in the district to shelter people driven out of homes because of Maoist atrocities.

Noting that the CPI(M) had always advocated that Maoists should be tackled politically, he said, "These camps are meant for refugees."

Maintaining that the resistance to Maoists had largely succeeded, he said, "Mass resistance to Maoists does not require arms."

Maoists, he said, had killed a large number of CPI(M) leaders, workers and common people in the district leading many to flee their homes.

Over 250 people, including 150 in West Midnapore district, were killed in the state since the last Lok Sabha elections, he said.


(PTI)