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Bengal Panchayat polls: TMC worker shot dead, 6 others injured in fresh clash
At least 11 people have been killed and dozens injured in clashes since June 8 when the State Election Commission (SEC) announced the poll schedule
A Trinamool Congress (TMC) worker was on Tuesday morning shot dead and six others were injured in a clash allegedly involving the supporters of West Bengal’s ruling party and Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Cooch Behar district’s Dinhata days before the July 8 panchayat polls in the state.
The clash was the latest in a series of violent incidents in the run up to the polls. At least 11 people have been killed and dozens injured in clashes since June 8 when the State Election Commission (SEC) announced the poll schedule.
“A political clash broke out between two groups. Seven persons sustained bullet injuries out of which one died. He has been identified as Babu Haque,” said a police officer posted in Cooch Behar, requesting anonymity.
The fresh clash scene is close to the unfenced portion of the India-Bangladesh border. “There is a probability that Bangladeshi criminals might have been used by local leaders in the incident,” said a second police officer. “Further investigation is going on.”
On Monday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee stared her campaign for the polls with a rally in Cooch Behar. She attacked the Border Security Force (BSF) saying that the border guarding force was terrorising and killing people in villages along the international border. She has earlier also attacked BSF.
In a statement on Monday, the BSF denied the allegations as totally baseless and far from truth. “No complaint of intimidating any person has been received so far by BSF or any other sister agency.”
The pre-poll violence has continued even as the state government has sought 822 companies of central paramilitary forces for conducting the elections. The Supreme Court on June 20 upheld a June 13 Calcutta high court order for their deployment. The high court directed the SEC to immediately requisition central forces and deploy them especially in sensitive constituencies. The state government and SEC challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which dismissed their appeals.
