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Maoists killed a local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader in West Bengal's West Midnapore District on Sunday. Bag, a resident of Tilaboni village of West Midnapore, was kidnapped by suspected Maoists from his house on Saturday night. The local administration has announced compensation to the kin of the victims. "We will provide Rupees 300,000 to each family affected by Maoist attacks after June 2009," said Narayan Swarup Nigam, District Magistrate, West Midnapore District. Meanwhile, Maoists on Sunday put up several banners in the district's Jhargram city, announcing a 48-hour shutdown in five states from May 18. A shutdown call has been given in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. The Maoists are demanding withdrawal of joint operations by police and paramilitary forces in the Lalgarh and Jangalmahal regions of West Bengal. Thousands have been killed in Maoist insurgency, which began in the late 1960s. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist threat one of the gravest homegrown threats to India's internal security. The rebels claim they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers. They have spread into the rural pockets of 20 of India's 28 states. Sources in the Union Home Ministry on Monday feared that the casualties of the IED blast in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada is likely to go high as the rescue and relief operations have been hampered due to bad light. Security forces have launched a major rescue operation. On Monday evening in one of the worst attack on civilians the Maoists blew up a private bus killing over 30 people. The bus was on its way from Dantewada to Sukma when the incident took place near Chingawaram, over nine kilometers from Sukma. The bus-CG17 SS 9295 was carrying 20 special police officers (SPO) and over 30 civilians.The SPOs were on their way to participate in a special recruitment drive. The latest blast incident has taken place a day after the Maoists called for a 48 hour shutdown in five states-Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. The sources said the attack might have been a pre -planned one. Reportedly, the Maoists also fired on the bus after the blast to ensure that nobody stays alive.

Maoists kill CPI-M leader in West Bengal