From Liberation, January-March 1971
Once again the police arrested five youths at Beliaghata [in Calcutta] and shot and murdered them. This is the policy that the Government have today adopted for all occasions and in all places — to shoot and murder revolutionaries. It is possible to avenge murder through murder alone. Today the Government are trying to murder people, so on behalf of the people we should take upon ourselves the task of avenging this murder through murder. This is called ‘tit for tat’ struggle. Chairman has said time and again that the tactics of our struggle should be tit for tat. That is why it is the task of every revolutionary today not only to wipe out the police force but to seize their rifles and to arm the squads of the peasant guerrillas with those rifles.
The battle for seizure of rifles has started. It started at Magurjan and has taken place in many other areas, even at Behala. This battle of ours is a political battle : our political principle is “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
In Bengal this struggle has reached a higher stage. So Bengal has to advance further in implementing the task of building the armed guerrrilla forces. Here the leadership of the landless and poor peasants has been established. Never should we treat lightly the task of establishing this leadership. The armed guerrilla forces led by poor and landless peasants will bring out the creative genius of the peasantry and, as a result, the revolutionary struggle will quickly assume a wide character. We will be prepared to fight every imperialist power and follow the path of solving all our problems by waging this armed struggle.
February 23, 1971
