Lalgarh

2009.07.08

Villagers with their 'arms'.
I am afraid you can't make out much of these pix.. without reading the longish piece at the end of this post:-)

even women with their cleavers, sticks etc. were not left behind

I wonder if these ' arms' would have been of any use against security forces' weapons.... a case of David vs. Goliath I suppose

Lalgarh is a village in West Bengal, about 200 kms. from Kolkata, the State capital. Lalgarh has been in news since November 2008 because of the activities of Maoists/Naxalites(Ultra Leftists) there.
Following an assassination attempt on the State Chief Minister and a Central Minister in the vicinity of this village on November 2, 2008, police, allegedly, committed a lot of atrocities and harassed innocent villagers in and around Lalgarh. Villagers united in a resistance group Peoples’ Committee against Police Atrocities-allegedly backed up by Maoists.
Villagers most of whom are tribal chased away state police men from their villages. When they heard of Central Government plans to send Central/paramilitary security forces to take control of the situation they took up their traditional arms like bows and arrows and dug up the approach roads to their villages to prevent the entry of security forces. Security forces managed to bring the situation ( more or less ) under control last month.