Date:07/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/07/stories/2008080759921200.htm

National

CPI(M) leader shot dead in Nandigram

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Tension prevailed at Nandigram in West Bengal on Wednesday after the killing of a local leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

CPI(M) leaders suspected the hand of the activists of the Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh (Resistance against Eviction from Land) Committee (BUPC) in the gunning down of Niranjan Mondal, secretary of the CPI(M)’s Rajaramchak local committee.

The police, however, ruled out any political clash. “It is difficult right now to ascertain who are responsible for the murder,” Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said.

Senior police officers from the city would go to the area on Thursday to supervise investigations, he added.

The incident came a day after another leader of the CPI(M) was shot at. He is in hospital.

The district Left Front has called a 24-hour bandh in Nandigram’s two blocks and its adjoining areas in protest against the two incidents.

Biman Bose’s charge

Biman Bose, Secretary of the CPI(M)’s West Bengal State Committee, said the Trinamool Congress was inciting fresh violence in Nandigram with the support of Maoists,

There have been attempts by the Trinamool leaders to create violence in the Nandigram area ever since the party took control of the local rural bodies after the panchayat polls in May, local CPI(M) leader Ashok Guria said.

BUPC supporters demonstrated outside the Nandigram thana during the day protesting against alleged police excesses on Tuesday night.