KPP, kins of ultras to join fast - Ulfa and Maoist Activists on hunger-strike

KPP, kins of ultras to join fast

Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Sept 21: Poles apart policywise, the CPI-ML (New Democracy) and the Kamtapur Peoples’ Party are but projecting a united face on the issue of the agitating prisoners at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital and at the Jalpaiguri Correctional Home.

The prisoners arrested as suspected KLO, Ulfa and Maoist activists have resorted to a hunger-strike demanding trial. The CPI-ML (New Democracy) and the Kamtapur Progressive Party have taken up their cause and have decided to express solidarity by holding a parallel hunger-strike and sit-in-demonstration in Siliguri on 25 and 26 September.

“Try them or release them,” is what the two organisations are demanding. According to the leadership of the two organisations, the family members of the agitating prisoners would also join the stir as would human rights and social welfare activists.

The two organisations plan to intensify their movement jointly after the Pujas on a horde of other issues including the state government’s policy to acquire land for industrialisation, wage increase, preference for local employment and others.
To launch the immediate stir, the New Democracy and the Kamtapur Progressive Party have decided to shelve their original demands of armed struggle and Kamtapur statehood respectively, for the time being.

Admitting that their philosophies were miles apart, New Democracy leader Mr Sridhar Mukherjee said: “The issue in question transcends the party line. We are not choosy about who we join forces with on such issues.”

KPP leader Mr Atul Roy too said that his organisation was keeping the statehood demand aside for the time being. “It is a question of human rights, which cuts across the party line,” he added. The two organisations brought out a rally in support of their demand in the town today. In addition to initiation of the prisoners’ trial without delay, the two organisations have also raised the demand of compensation for the prisoners’ families.