On the 55th anniversary of the Kashipur-Baranagar massacre, CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, West Bengal State Secretary Comrade Abhijit Mazumdar and other party leaders paid homage to the young communists martyred in the state-sponsored massacre of August 12-13, 1971.
The Kashipur-Baranagar massacre, in the northern outskirts of Kolkata, was one of the most brutal episodes of state repression during the notorious Siddhartha Shankar Ray regime in West Bengal. The regime had turned the state into a police state in its bid to crush the Naxalbari upsurge and the communist movement through serial massacres, fake encounters, illegal detention, custodial torture and state-sponsored street violence.
Paying homage to the martyrs on August 13, Comrade Dipankar recalled the brutal history of state terror unleashed against young communists and reaffirmed the party’s resolve to carry forward their struggle for justice, liberty and revolutionary change.
He said that the legacy of the Kashipur-Baranagar massacre assumes renewed significance today, when the Modi-Shah regime is institutionalising the police-state template across India. Draconian laws, state repression and street thuggery are being deployed to silence communists and other dissenting voices, while Muslims and other marginalised social groups are increasingly facing systematic persecution and repression.
Comrade Abhijit Mazumdar said that remembering the Kashipur-Baranagar martyrs means intensifying the struggle against state terror and fascist repression. He called for strengthening resistance on all fronts and advancing the battle for democracy, justice and liberty.
The martyrs of Kashipur-Baranagar remain a powerful symbol of resistance to state-sponsored violence and continue to inspire the struggle against fascism and for a society free from exploitation and oppression.
