Nandigram: Assailants throw bombs

Tension gripped Kenduamarhi Khiyaghat area in Nandigram on Monday as assailants threw bombs in the locality even as Trinamool Congress and Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee, spearheading the protest against acquistion of farmland for SEZ, observed a one-hour road blockade in the area. BUPC sources on Monday said assailants came in a motor boat to the Kenduamarhi Khiyaghat on the Haldi river on Sunday night.

They threw bombs to scare locals. When the people gathered and chased them, they fled in the boat. BUPC sources allege that as the roads to Nandigram were dug up, the assailants came in the boat to scare them for spearheading the protest against the acquisition of farmland for the SEZ in East Midnapore district of West Bengal.

Sources said they would gherao the Block Development Officer's office and local police station on January 25 to protest the bombings and to demand a thorough inquiry into the violence on January seven in which six persons were killed.

Meanwhile, roads were dug up on Sunday and anti-CPI(M) rallies were organised by the activists opposing land acquisition after the Saturday's peace meeting failed.

The BUPC declined to abide by the decisions taken at the peace meeting. Sheikh Sufiyan, convenor of the BUPC, said the CPI(M) had given the charge of looking into the Nandigram affair to its district secretaries Tarun Roy and Dipak Sarkar and the agitators were objecting to it.