Eleven persons were killed and 34, including 14 policemen, injured when the police opened fire on a violent crowd in the strife-torn Nandigram area in West Bengal on Wednesday.
KOLKATA : Violence erupted as the mob hurled stones at the police moving into the Sonachura area, Bhangabera and other parts. As lathicharge, bursting of teargas shells and firing of rubber bullets failed to disperse the protesters, the police resorted to firing. One person was killed when a bomb he was carrying exploded.
The policemen were moving in to restore communication links and normality in the area, large parts of which had remained inaccessible since group clashes there on January 6-7 claimed six lives.
Roads leading to the area were dug up by members of the Trinamool Congress-led Bhoomi Ucched Pratirodh Committee, which is opposed to the setting up of a chemical unit in the area.
Claiming that more than 20 persons were killed and 200 injured in the firing, Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee has called a 12-hour Statewide "general strike" for Friday. This has resulted in the rescheduling of higher secondary examinations, which were to begin that day.
The Congress and the BJP too gave a call for a 12-hour and 24-hour strike that day. The Trinamool and the Congress have demanded that Article 356 (President's Rule) be invoked in the State in view of the "total breakdown of law and order."
Members of both parties walked out of the Assembly in protest against the police firing and demanded a statement from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
The Purbo Mednipur district Kisan Sabha and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, both affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), called a 12-hour bandh from 5 p.m. on Wednesday in protest against attempts by troublemakers to resist the move to restore normality in Nandigram.
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