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HREE POPULAR peasant fighters of Jahanabad district in Bihar, Comrade Lalan alias Bijendra Paswan (39 years), Comrade Kamlesh alias Chandradev Yadav (28 years) and Comrade Mithilesh Das (30 years) were killed at Larsa village on 25 June 2003 due to a heinous conspiracy hatched by notorious criminals belonging to PWG and RJD. These criminals misled the people in believing that these comrades were dacoits.

Comrade Lalan, resident of Madua village, was member of the CPI(ML)’s Jahanabad Rural Block Committee and head of the peasant defence corps of Jahanabad-Kako area. Comrade Kamalesh hailed from Murari village of Karpi block and was member of Party’s Karpi Block Committee and incharge of peasant defence corps of Karpi. Comrade Mithilesh was resident of Mungila village of Paliganj Block of Patna district and a member of Karpi Block Committee of Bihar Pradesh Khet Mazdoor Sabha (BPKMS).

All the three comrades were going to Kako, to participate in a Party class organized to study the documents passed in the Party’s 7th National Congress. As they neared Larsa village, they encountered a notorious criminal Dinesh Yadav, who was accompanied by 6 other members of PWG. In the scuffle that ensued Dinesh Yadav fled. The three comrades took shelter in Larsa where our base is quite weak. The criminals belonging to RJD and PWG elements raised a cry that cattle thieves had entered the village. A few days back cattle thieves had injured a resident of Larsa and killed another person belonging to nearby village. All this was fresh in the memory of the villagers and they were carried away by this malicious hue and cry. Our comrades despite being armed did not use them against the people and tried to explain that they were communist revolutionaries. They laid down their lives in defending the communist principle of not attacking the common people.

Next day on 26 June 2003 a large funeral march was taken out in Jahanabad town, and the last rites of the fallen comrades were performed at River Dardha of Jahanabad, in which thousands of peasants and party sympathizers participated. Thus the malicious propaganda by the district administration and the press to portray the three comrades as criminals was effectively countered. The people of Larsa and nearby villages too realized their mistake and around a thousand people got assembled under the leadership of our Party. It was decided there to build a memorial of the three martyr comrades.

The martyrdom of Comrades Lalan, Kamlesh and Mithilesh is an irreparable loss to the Party. But their struggling lives and heroism will remain a source of inspiration for the whole Party. ?