Hunt for missing kin begins

Statesman News Service, 12 November

NANDIGRAM, Nov. 11: The day Bengal celebrated Brother’s Day when sisters wished long life to their brothers through an elaborate ritual, Dipen Mondal of Gangra village, Nandigram, had to frantically search for his elder sister in the paddy fields and then rush her to the hospital when he found her lying unconscious with bullet wounds in her leg near Maheshpur Kamarpara this morning.

Even when Dipen didn’t know whether life had already ebbed away from his sister, Kalpana, he considered himself lucky as many others in Nandigram scoured the paddy fields in vain in search of their missing relatives. For the past few days Dipen had been using the cover of darkness to look for his sister. He was so desperate this morning that he continued his search even in daylight and succeeded in tracing Kalpana in the morning. Immediately, he got hold of a cycle van and pedaled her away to Nandigram Hospital where she responded to treatment. Her condition was later stated to be stable.

After the CPI-M launched its offensive in a bid to recapture Nandigram villages, supporters of Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee (BUPC) began a hunt for their relatives who went missing in the aftermath of the fresh cycle of violence.

“The number of missing people is going up. A total of 350 persons can’t be traced after CPI-M cadres fired bullets at our rally near Maheshpur Bazar yesterday.

Again, those who were driven out of their homes in the past four days have to go without food and shelter,” said Sheikh Sufiyan, a senior BUPC member.

He said the CPI-M allowed only 11 persons of Gokulnagar, Sonachura and Southkhali villages to return home during the day. But these villagers narrated tales of brutal torture by CPI-M cadres at a primary school near Khejuri where they had been kept.

Relatives of Mr Goutam Pradhan, a resident of Sonachura who went missing after the firing, had no idea about his whereabouts till late this evening. They fear CPI-M cadres have dumped Goutam’s body elsewhere.

Relatives of Mr Abhimanyu Patra, a BUPC supporter, ran from pillar to post today to trace him, but failed in their efforts. BUPC members informed them he was last seen at Maheshpore Bazar yesterday afternoon.

“We ran for our lives after the firing began. Abhimanyu fell to the ground after a bullet struck him in the leg. We couldn’t find him since then,” said a BUPC supporter of Sonachura.

Mrs Shibani Mondal, a housewife from Gokulnagar, said she had been abducted and later kept at Amtala primary school at Khejuri along with nearly 100 BUPC supporters who were beaten up by CPI-M men for participating in a BUPC rally.

So much for the CPI-M’s efforts to help their supporters return home and exhort them “not to take revenge through retaliatory strikes, but cohabit with their adversaries.