Thaindian News

Kolkata, July 5 (IANS) Three Congress supporters were injured when Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPI-M) activists allegedly hurled crude bombs and set their houses on fire following a dispute over agricultural land in West Bengal’s Burdwan district Monday, police said.
Police said, the trouble started Saturday when the owner of 2.5 bighas of land in Pulsona village, Mojam Seikh, who stays outside the village, came back and saw that a sharecropper, Seikh Selim, had been cultivating the land without his knowledge.

“Mojam went to take possession of the land with local people and Selim brought goons from outside the village. Both the groups hurled bombs at each other. But they fled with the arrival of huge contingent of police,” said a police officer.

Monday morning, Mojam again went to take possession of the land at around 2 p.m., and again Selim and his men hurled bombs at them and set fire to the houses of three Congress supporters.

Mongolkote police and Rapid Action Forces (RAF) troopers baton charged the groups and also fired few rounds in air to disperse the clashing groups, locals said.

A villager said: “Mojam is a Congress supporter, while Selim is a CPI-M supporter.”

Gyan Deo Prosad Shaw, officer-in-charge of the Mongolkote police station, said that the situation is now under control, and RAF troopers staged a flag march in the area.

No arrests have been made so far and no complaint has been lodged, he added.

Mangolkot became a political flashpoint after a CPI-M rural body member was allegedly murdered by opposition party activists soon after the Lok Sabha elections last year.

In retaliation, alleged CPI-M workers burnt down houses of opposition workers and even chased a delegation led by then state Congress legislative party leader Manas Bhuniya.