By IANS
Kolkata : After a lull of three months, the fragile peace in West Bengal’s Nandigram was shattered by an indiscriminate firing allegedly by supporters of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)on rival Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members Sunday. One person was seriously injured, the police said.
“One person has sustained a bullet injury. We are arresting the miscreants,” East Midnapore Superintendent of Police S.S. Panda told IANS from the troubled spot.
The firing took place at Kiykhali near Satengabari in Nandigram, about 150 km from here in East Midnapore district.
BUPC, which is spearheaded by parties like Trinamool Congress, claimed that several of its supporters were injured in the firing by the CPI-M men led by a villager who has been released from jail.
“Around 1.30 p.m. the CPI-M men started firing indiscriminately,” BUPC leader Abdus Samad told IANS.
“The CPI-M men fired about 25 rounds. Two of the injured were being sent to the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata,” he claimed.
Panda maintained that one person was injured but did not specify to which side he belonged.
The BUPC has given a call for a day-long shutdown in Nandigram.
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) units are deployed in trouble-torn Nandigram and would remain so till the panchayat elections around the middle of this year.
The official toll in the yearlong Nandigram violence over proposed land acquisition for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in 2007 is 35.
March 14, 2007, 14 people were killed and hundreds injured in police firing, while some women were reportedly raped.
In November, the ruling CPI-M allegedly unleashed a reign of terror to recapture the area, leaving a trail of destruction, with the rival BUPC members beaten up and women in their households allegedly raped.
Earlier, the CPI-M supporters were driven out of the area by BUPC and forced to live in camps in adjoining Khejuri, a base of the CPI-M from where they launched attacks on their rivals in Nandigram.