Saturday, October 27, 2007

One killed in Nandigram violence, gun battle rages

Kolkata/Nandigram, India: A villager was killed while several people were injured in a gun battle between activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and an anti-land acquisition group in West Bengal's trouble-torn Nandigram Saturday.
'One person was killed in fresh violence. The number of the injured is not immediately known but several were injured,' East Midnapore Superintendent of Police G.A. Srivinas told IANS.

'The gun battle between the two groups is still raging. The situation is tense,' he said Saturday afternoon.

The Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), opposing land acquisition for industry, said the victim - 39-year-old Kaum Kazi - was its member. Kazi died in Takapura area of Nandigram, about 150 km from Kolkata, in East Midnapore district.

'The administration is solely responsible for the death since a police camp at a Takapura school was removed despite our warning. We want immediate removal of the superintendent of police because he is squarely to be blamed for the violence,' BUPC leader Abdus Samad said.

'The CPI-M men are entering the area with full force and the police are facilitating only that,' he said.

Bengali TV channels said Debabrato Jana, another member of BUPC, also received serious bullet injuries in the gun battle.

'There were reports of firing and bombs being hurled in Nandigram,' West Bengal Inspector General (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said in Kolkata.

The incident unleashed fresh tension in Satengabari, Takapura and Bahargunge areas.

With the death, the toll in the Nandigram violence has risen to 24 since January this year when the region erupted in protests over proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ), including a chemical hub, in collaboration with Indonesia's Salim group.

On March 14, at least 14 people were killed and over 100 injured in police firing while protesting against the land acquisition in Nandigram and entry of policemen in the area.

The chemical hub planned there was finally scrapped by the state government in the face of violent protests but the region continues to be tense with the rival groups keeping the issue alive in the run-up to the panchayat elections next year.

Communist patriarch Jyoti Basu Friday said the West Bengal government will pay compensation to families of all those who died in the March 14 violence in Nandigram, irrespective of whether they were killed in police firing.

No comments: