Mamata remembers 'Choto Angaria' victims, pays tribute

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, remembered her party workers who were brutally killed allegedly by CPI(M) activists at Choto Angaria on January 4, 2001.

Paying her tribute to all the workers who were martyred in the massacre, Banerjee tweeted: "On January 4, 2001, 11 Trinamool Congress workers were brutally murdered by CPI(M). My respect to the martyrs who had sacrificed their lives during the 34 years of bloody politics of killing of the Left Front regime."

On January 4, 2001, eleven Trinamool Congress workers were burnt by the CPI(M) workers at Choto Angaria village of West Midnapore. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was the Chief Minister at the time.

Banerjee along with a team of senior Trinamool Congress leaders had visited Choto Angaria, after the incident and had also staged a demonstration in Kolkata demanding arrests of the persons involved in the horrendous incident. She had also led several protest marches against the brutal killing of her party members.

The police had registered 14 FIRs and had arrested seven people. Later, five more people had also been arrested. However, the police failed to roundup the prime accused in the incident—Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali — two local CPI(M) leaders as both were absconding.

The Criminal Investigation Department probing the case had transferred it to the CBI in April 2001. Though CBI had framed charge sheet against Ghosh and Ali both were absconding. The duo got arrested from Egra in East Midnapore in November 2007, six years after the incident. The CPI(M) in a bid to re-establish its control over Nandigram had carried out Operation Sunrise during which Trinamool workers were brutally attacked. Ghosh and Ali were involved in the incident. After the incident, they took shelter in Egra from where the police arrested them.

Banerjee had led a movement demanding a thorough probe into the Nandigram incident. She had led various protest marches in Kolkata.

Nandigram became the CPI(M)'s Waterloo. In 2008 CPI(M) lost Zilla Parishad and the Panchayat Election to Trinamool. In 2009 Trinamool got 19 Lok Sabha seats. It won the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in 2010 and ousted the Left Front in the Assembly election in 2011.