By IANS
Nandigram : Life was badly hit here Monday during a 12-hour shutdown called by a group opposed to government takeover of farm land after a police assault on protestors even as a farmer was killed in a clash.
The Trinamool Congress backed Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) organised the protest to denounce the police use of batons a day earlier that injured about 35 people.
A farmer, Bapan Patra, 35, was also killed Sunday in firing between the BUPC and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) supporters.
Sunday's violence erupted when BUPC and the CPI-M took out separate processions, West Bengal Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told IANS.
The CPI-M claimed that the dead farmer, a resident of Pankhai village of Khejuri adjoining Nandigram, was a supporter of the party.
When CPI-M and BUPC men began firing and hurling crude bombs at each other, Bapan was working in his paddy field nearby. He died on the spot after being hit by a stray bullet.
Barun Mondal, another CPI-M supporter, and two BUPC members, Adhir Khatua and Manoranjan Midda, too sustained bullet injuries in the gunfire.
The CPI-M supporters were celebrating the party's win in the Haldia municipal elections.
BUPC leader Abdus Samad claimed that CPI-M workers hurled locally made bombs at them. CPI-M leaders, however, alleged that BUPC men attacked their party office, triggering the clash.
Thirty-five people were injured when the police used batons to disperse the two groups.
"We will surround the Nandigram police station Aug 1 to protest the firing," warned Samad.
A BUPC supporter blamed the latest violence on Haldia legislator Laxman Seth's comments that the verdict in Haldia was a mandate for industrialisation, hinting at converting Nandigram into an industrial complex.
Haldia is an industrial town close to Nandigram where the communists are planning to relocate the chemical hub that was originally planned in Nandigram, after widespread violent protests.
At least 23 people have been killed, hundreds injured and several raped in Nandigram in protests since January against the special economic zone (SEZ) and a chemical hub planned there in collaboration with Indonesia's Salim Group.
Following the violence, the SEZ plan was scrapped but thousands belonging to both the CPI-M and BUPC have been living in camps.