Kolkata: The Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) has claimed responsibility for the derailment of a train that left at least 65 dead in West Bengal on Friday, said police.
"The PCAPA have left two posters near the rail tracks clearly owning responsibility for the derailment of the Kurla-bound Gyaneswari Express," IGP (Law and Order) S Karpurakayastha told PTI in Kolkata.
Karpurakayastha said the posters read: "we earlier demanded withdrawal of the joint security forces from Jangalmahal (West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia) and end of CPI-M atrocities, but those demands were not met."
Another poster demanded immediate withdrawal of the joint forces from the area. Police have seized both posters.
However, PCPA spokesperson Asit Mahato told PTI over phone that the group was "in no way involved. This is not our act."
"What can we do if somebody claims responsibility on our behalf?" he said about the posters. "We are in the dark and it is the job of the police to find out who had done it," he said. On the heavy loss of lives, he said, "it is bad to hear about it."
On October 27 last year, the PCPA blocked the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express for eight hours during a bandh it had enforced in the region. Nearly 400 villagers owing allegiance to the PCPA had blocked the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express at Banstala halt in Jhargram.
The blockade was enforced as part of an indefinite bandh in the district to protest security force operations in the area.
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