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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
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Two injured in Nandigram clashes

Special Correspondent

CRPF to remain posted in the area

Kolkata: Violence flared up in Nandigram in West Bengal’s Purbo Medinipur district on Monday, just days ahead of the panchayat elections there, when guns and bombs were used during clashes between supporters of the Trinamool Congress-led Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh [Resistance against Land Eviction] Committee (BUPC) and the CPI(M).

Two men, said to be CPI(M) supporters, were seriously injured when a procession taken out by the party in support of its candidates for the rural polls to be held on May 11 was attacked by BUPC activists in the Nandigram Block I area.

Those in the procession were fired at and attacked with bombs, Biman Bose, Secretary of the CPI(M)’s State Committee, said.

Supporters of the BUPC and those of the CPI(M) have been at loggerheads ever since a movement was launched by the former early in 2007 against the proposed setting up of a chemical hub. Resentment continued even after the State government called off the project.

Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakravarty said the Central Reserve Police Force that had been deployed in the area in November 2007 in the wake of the violence will continue to be posted in the area.

Mr. Bose said the “administration must make special arrangements to ensure that elections in Nandigram were free and fair.”

The BUPC leadership demanded the deployment of additional Central forces in Nandigram.

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