Violence erupted at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district again on Friday as villagers repeatedly clashed with the Trinamool Congress cadres following the alleged arrest of a protester in the morning.
When the villagers assembled at Natunhat around 10 a.m. to protest against the arrest, they were allegedly attacked by supporters of local TMC leader and former MLA of Bhangar Arabul Islam. The protesters later set up road blocks at eight places along a three-kilometre stretch on Haroa road. Mr. Islam denied the allegations.
Calls to the Superintendent of Police, South 24 Paraganas, Sunil Kumar Choudhary went unanswered.
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The situation in Bhangar has been tense since the last couple of months after the villagers started an agitation against the setting up of a power grid in the area. The movement was fuelled by a section of TMC leaders who did not want the power grid to come up. However, as the movement gathered momentum, the TMC leaders lost control over it. The situation flared up on January 18 when two persons were shot dead during a clash between the agitators and the police.
“The former MLA's henchmen hurled bombs at the villagers and assaulted the protesters with sticks to disperse them. They also kidnapped two of the villagers, Golam Mostafa and Akbar Ali,” said a member of the Jomi, Jibika, Poribesh O Bastutantra Raksha Committee [Land and Livelihood Protection Committee]. He also said that one protester was injured when the TMC cadres assaulted him with sticks.
Soon after, the villagers regrouped and chased away the TMC cadres. Suspecting that the two kidnapped protesters were being “tortured in the house of Mr. Islam” in Gajipur village, the villagers tried to rescue them. “When the protesters reached near Mr. Islam’s residence, TMC goons, who had gathered at the adjoining party office, started hurling bombs at them. They [TMC cadres] fled facing resistance from the villagers who also ransacked the party office,” said one of the protesters.
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However, the protesters did not enter Mr. Islam’s house.
Road blocked
When the protesters put up road blocks along Haroa road adjoining Bhangar in the evening, “armed TMC cadres” tried to lift the blockade by force. “The TMC goons assaulted five to six people in Gajipur village. The villagers blocked the road again after the TMC cadres left the spot,” a local said.
Denying the allegations, Mr. Islam said “the protesters ransacked a TMC party office in Gajipur and were roughed up by locals.”
However, late on Friday evening the protesters said that “while one of the kidnapped villagers, Akbar Ali, has returned home, the other, Golam Mostafa, was reportedly kept at the Kashipur police station in Bhangar. But we are yet to get confirmed information about Mr. Mostafa’s whereabouts,” said a local.