Battle for land: Six killed in Nandigram
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Kolkata/Nandigram, Jan 7 (IANS) Three people were killed in overnight clashes in West Bengal's Nandigram area between farmers resisting land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ) and activists of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). In protest, the opposition parties called for a 24-hour statewide shutdown Monday.
Although electronic media and several political parties, including the CPI-M put the death toll between six and 10, East Midnapore district magistrate Anup Agarwal told IANS that only three bodies had been recovered till late Sunday evening.
"We have got three bodies so far, including one just being brought in. There can be more bodies but till now the official toll is three," he said.
"We have sent two injured to Kolkata for treatment," he said even as police failed to reach the interiors fearing backlash and also owing to the villagers digging up roads, laying uprooted trees and demolishing bridges to prevent entry of cops.
Nightlong clashes with firearms and bombs ended Sunday morning.
While the Congress has called for a statewide 24-hour shutdown, the Trinamool Congress has given a call for a 12-hour strike. Nandigram observed a shutdown Sunday over the killings.
The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), a Left opposition party, also gave a separate shutdown call.
"The bandhs (shutdowns) would send wrong signal to investors. The situation is disturbing," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said even as a Trinamool Congress procession was stopped on its way to his south Kolkata residence on Palm Avenue.
Trinamool Congress demanded resignation of the chief minister over the situation alleging that the Nandigram flare-up was an outcome of the direct instigation of his party leaders.
Nandigram, about 150 km from Kolkata, is a minority dominated area and considered a Left Front citadel.
It turned into a combat zone Sunday as villagers blew conch shells and moved with swords, sickles and staves sounding a bugle of war against the CPI-M and the state administration following the move to acquire land for the SEZ, including a chemical hub, in collaboration with Indonesia's Salim group.
Congress leader Manas Bhuiyan told reporters that 10 people were killed in Nandigram.
Among the farmers killed is Bharat Mandal, 28, who was shot dead by CPI-M men, villagers alleged.
Bengali news channel Kolkata TV, which captured the clashes on camera, said six people had died so far - it identified the others as Bishwajit Maity, Bishnu Maity, Sheikh Selim, Shankar Samanta and Bhudeb Mandal.
CPI-M state secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose told a press conference that the dead included three party activists while 10 of their men went missing.
Many CPI-M men also had to flee their homes and live in camps after the flare-up.
Nandigram villagers said the ruling party men had raided the village in police uniform and unleashed the nightlong violence.
TV footage showed a bullet-riddled Bharat Mandal, a member of the newly formed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (Committee to Resist Eviction from Land), collapsing.
"The CPI-M men raided us in police fatigues and killed him," a villager said.
Local journalists said the attack was organised by the CPI-M men who started throwing bombs from across the river at Khejuri towards Nandigram's border villages like Sonachura.
The trouble started Wednesday when police had to fire several rounds to quell frenzied villagers who set a police jeep on fire, heavily injured cops, blocked roads with boulders and demolished a bridge to prevent police access to the area after the word of a land acquisition notification spread.
The situation has remained explosive since then, prompting Bhattacharya and the CPI-M to go on back foot even as the Left Front constituent Communist Party of India (CPI) criticised the former for its land acquisition policies.
The Nandigram assembly seat is held by the CPI while the Haldia Lok Sabha seat belongs to the CPI-M.
In East Midnapore, the government reportedly is eyeing over 22,000 acres of land for industrial projects.
On July 31, the state government signed an agreement with the Salim Group to implement various developmental projects, including a mega chemical industrial estate, to be spread over 10,000 acres in a 50:50 joint venture.
Construction of a four-lane road bridge over the Haldi river, from Haldia to Nandigram, has also been planned.
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Labels: Bengal, Nandigram, News
posted by Bimal 1/07/2007 09:38:00 PM,
