LALGARH - Battling landmine blasts and Maoists’ bullets, the security forces Friday reclaimed more areas around this enclave, but the leftwing radicals rejected calls for laying down arms and vowed to continue the fight against “state terrorism”.

“The joint operation, led by a state government in collusion with the Congress-led central government, has not been able to silence the protesting voices,” the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist said in a media statement here on the ninth day of the security operation aimed at flushing out the guerrillas from areas in and around this pocket of West Midnapore district.

“The ban on the CPI (Maoist) will only expose the government further and embolden the people to take up greater responsibilities,” the statement said, as the rebels and their associate tribal body, Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), took out a rally of more than 1,500 villagers against the security personnel in Ramgarh - 22 km from here - and threatened to put up strong resistance.

Another PCAPA rally is planned for Saturday at the Maoist stronghold of Kantapahari, where the forces are likely to reach the same day.

In the battleground, a huge team of paramilitary troopers and state armed policemen set out from their camp in Goaltore bordering Bankura district Friday morning and reclaimed strategic pockets of Pingboni and Kadasole after overcoming resistance in a forested stretch, an official said.

The extremists triggered a landmine blast and fired at the forces in the Pingboni jungles, but fled after the troopers returned the fire.

Later, specialists accompanying the security personnel defused three more mines planted by the Maoists by the roadside.

“The operations went on smoothly, and the forces have camped at Kadasole. There has been no casualty on our side,” Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told IANS, refusing to divulge details of the operations.

A helicopter kept surveillance as the security forces rode mine-protected vehicles and used handheld mine detectors to find mines, and fish out the rebels from the surrounding villages.

Carrying mortars, light machine guns and AK-47s, a section of the forces cordoned off Pingboni after the blast to search for more mines. The other troopers marched on to establish control over other Maoist-affected pockets closing in on Ramgarh, nine km from Goaltore, where the rebels had earlier this month torched a police camp and driven out the civil administration.

Meanwhile, the situation seemed to be improving in Lalgarh town, 200 km west of state capital Kolkata, with shops and markets reopening and vehicles out on the roads. The district administration distributed rice and other relief material.

The forces defused four landmines at Pirakata, located on the main road between district headquarters Midnapur Town and Lalgarh. People in interior villages continued to flee homes for relief camps or houses of relatives in other localities, media reports said.

A report said more than 30,000 villagers had left their homes, fearing a security crackdown in the area where the state administration was virtually blocked out by hundreds of armed Maoists. The security operations were started June 18.

“The police raid our homes in daytime, the forest party (Maoists) intimidates us at night. Where do we go?” a hapless villager asked a visiting reporter.

PCAPA, backed by the Maoists, has since last November established virtual control over 42 villages in Lalgarh and surrounding areas. The troopers have so far re-established the writ of the state in more than half of these villages.

Lalgarh has been on the boil since November when a landmines exploded on the route of the convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada.

Complaining of police atrocities after the blast, angry tribals backed by Maoists launched an agitation, virtually cutting off the area from the rest of West Midnapore district.

Leftwing radicals torched police camps, set ablaze offices of the state’s ruling communists and drove out the civil administration to establish a virtual “free zone”.

Maoists are active in areas under 21 police stations in the state’s three western districts - West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia.