Lalgarh:
Twelve days after it began, Operation Lalgarh on Monday saw security forces taking control of Katapahari, the last Maoist stronghold in West Bengal, without a shot being fired or a land mine going off.
The police will now set up camp at Katapahari to enforce law and order and build bridges with the tribals with whom it had fallen out of touch. But the headache may not be over, the Maoist fighters are believed to have fled to neighbouring Purulia.
Katapahari was considered a Maoist stronghold but the forces faced no resistance at all, either from the Maoists or the ordinary people.
However, the biggest task now is to build bridges with the people of Lalgarh who had lost confidence in the police and begun a boycott in November.
Crowded into a relief camp, scores of people said they were scared of the police because of their alleged excesses but the arrival of security forces seems to have allayed those fears.
"I had runaway to the relief camp because I was scared of the police but now that the police are saying there is nothing to fear, so I am going home," said Bhakti Kisku, villager.
Hours after security forces took position at Katapahari people started leaving the relief camp for their homes.