Sub-Inspector killed in Nandigram

Special Correspondent
The Hindu, 8 February

Angry villagers go on the rampage; four other policemen injured

-Fresh trouble in Singur
-Buddhadeb reviews situation in Singur, Nandigram

KOLKATA: For the first time since the Nandigram area was rocked by violence fuelled by rumours of land acquisition for a proposed special economic zone (SEZ) there, a sub-inspector was killed when he was attacked by angry villagers on Wednesday.

The victim, working in the Purbo Medinipur district's intelligence branch, was allegedly beaten to death after a police team from the Bhowanipore thana went to a village adjoining Nandigram following reports that some people were digging up a road to prevent the police from entering the area.

The body remained untraced till Wednesday evening, Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy said here. Twelve persons have been arrested.

Four other policemen were also injured when they were attacked with bricks. They were admitted to a local hospital in a serious condition, Inspector-General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said. Though Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had been trying to dispel fears of any immediate acquisition of land for the SEZ at Nandigram to be set up by the Indonesian Salim Group, the area has remained troubled ever since six persons were killed in group clashes there on January 6-7.

Bid to damage fence

There was fresh trouble in the Singur area of adjoining Hooghly district when activists of the Trinamool Congress-led Krishi Jami Raksha (Save Farmland) Committee tried to damage a portion of the fence cordoning off the site where construction work for the Tata Motors' automobile plant is in progress. The police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the trouble-makers who also tried to dig up a road leading to the site in the Bajemelia area to keep the security forces deployed there at bay.

The situation in Singur and Nandigram was reviewed by the Chief Minister at a meeting with senior State and police officials here. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 Cr. PC are in force at Singur.

There has been no let-up in tension in the Nandigram area where a few villages remained inaccessible to the police since the January violence as roads have been dug up by activists of the local Bhoomi Ucched Pratirodh (Resistance Against Eviction of Land) Committee spearheaded by the Trinamool Congress.