West Bengal: Clashes in North 24 Parganas kills 3 over panchayat board formation

Violence continued in West Bengal for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, as Amdanga in North 24 Parganas district witnessed massive clashes between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and CPM over the panchayat board formation in which three people were killed and 17 injured. More than 10 people were arrested in connection with the clashes.

Out of the three killed two of them belonged to TMC and the third person to the CPM. The TMC members have been identified as -- Nasir Haldar and Kuddus Gani and the CPM member have been identified as Muzzafar Ahmed. The injured people are currently undergoing treatment at Barasat, Barrackpore and RG Kar Hospital. 

In the clashes, a series of houses were also torched and fire is still raging in a few village houses. Live crude bombs in huge numbers are still lying in the area. A huge police force has been rushed to the spot. Police are carrying out raids in the area. Meanwhile, board formation in three gram panchayats of Amdanga - Taraberia, Moricha and Bodai has been postponed. 

According to reports, on Tuesday evening the power was disconnected in the Amadanga area. Simultaneously, bombing and firing had also started. The clashes took such a turn initially that not even the police of four police stations could enter the area for a long time.

As the clashes continued, more police forces were called to the spot. The police were then able to evacuate the bodies from the area.

TMC MLA Jyotipriya Mallick and Rafiqur Rahaman reached the hospital and spoke to the families of the injured.

They said that arms were already procured from Bangladesh and Pakistan and according to the plan, the CPM started violence in the evening.

Massive clashes were reported in Howrah and North Dinajpur district of West Bengal on Tuesday. Itahar and Daspara in North Dinajpur district also remained on the boil with three party cadres – TMC, Congress and BJP clashing with each other.

Party cadres hurled crude bombs, pelted stones at each other. Police rushed to the spot to control the situation but was instead attacked by the agitated crowd. They hurled stones at the police injuring several policemen in the attack. Party cadres even torched a police vehicle in Itahar. In retaliation, the police had to resort to tear gas shelling and lathicharge.

In North Dinajpur’s Itahar, there are a total of 25 seats. Of the total 25, BJP bagged 13 seats and TMC managed to secure 12 seats and in Daspur gram panchayat all 13 seats were won by TMC. 

On the other hand, clashes broke out once again in Howrah’s Uluberia area over the formation of panchayat board. BJP cadres clashed with the TMC and the situation remained tense for the second consecutive day in Uluberia. In Uluberia's Tulsiberia gram panchayat, out of the total 18 seats, BJP secured 10 seats, TMC secured 7 seats and one independent candidate later joined TMC. 

On Monday, four people were killed amid the formation of panchayat board across West Bengal.