People's Democracy

THREE CPI(M) workers were killed and four others injured in a series of dastardly attacks by Trinamul Congress, SUCI and Congress activists in different parts of Bengal since June 8.

Comrade Abdul Ghani, a member of the Amdanga (North) Local Committee of the CPI (M) was shot and killed by Trinamul Congress activists on the night of June 8 at the remote Hamidpur village 26 km away from Amdanga in the district of north 24 Parganas.

Comrade Ghani had travelled to attend an arbitration meeting at Habra and while returning he was followed by several notorious criminals of the area. They shot at him from close range near the Ghanipukur area of the Hamidpur village where the late comrade had his residence.

Villagers told INN that the Trinamul Congress activists of the area had earlier issued threats to comrade Ghani on the eve of the assembly elections.

The speaker of the Bengal Legislative Assembly, Hasim Abdul Halim was able to retain his Amdanga seat albeit with a reduced margin in a hard-fought electoral battle. The Trinamul Congress leadership were not willing to live down the electoral reverse at Amdanga. Their way of taking revenge on the popular verdict was to take resort to the ubiquitous "gun law" and shoot down, in cold blood, comrade Abdul Ghani. A 12-hour bandh was observed in the Amdanga locality to register protest against the murder of comrade Ghani who leaves behind his parents and his wife and four children.

In another incident at Kultali in south 24 Parganas district comrade Raghunath Sardar, a CPI (M) worker from Sonatikuri, was brutally murdered by the SUCI backed goons on June 12. He had been shot twice on the back and one of the bullets had punctured his lung. In a dying statement, he named two elected Panchayat members of Nalgoda, Suresh and Mihir Baidya as his assassins. Both are members of the SUCI.

The police had chosen to ignore comrade Raghunath Sardar's exhortation, on June 8 itself, to initiate pre-cautionary measures against a possible attack on him by SUCI-backed goons. Four days later comrade Raghunath was killed.

INN learns on a visit to the spot where comrade Sardar was brutally gunned down that he had virtually gone underground several times earlier due to an array of threats from the SUCI goons. This time around, however, he would not run away from the danger which he knew to be hovering constantly around him. He chose instead to embrace a martyr's death. There was a great deal of indignation among the villagers in the midst of whom comrade Raghunath had worked when news of the assassination reached them and it was only the intervention of senior CPI (M) leaders of the district that prevented an angry outburst of feelings about the reported police inaction.

Ever since the Pradesh Congress candidate had to concede defeat by a large margin at the Juginda-Malopada booth in the Domkal constituency in Murshidabad, there had been a brewing of tension in the area. Notorious criminals in the pay of the Pradesh Congress had issued threats to the villagers about how they would have pay in blood for the "indiscretion of voting for the Red." The provocation that sparked off an en masse attack by the hoodlums on CPI (M) workers was an aborted attempt to forcibly occupy eight bighas of ceiling-surplus land that had been allotted to bargadars.

In "retaliation" a fierce armed attack was mounted on the hutment of the bargadars, and the ruckus expectedly brought out CPI (M) workers of the locality responding to cries of distress. A small group of professional killers were lying in wait in a bamboo grove for the CPI (M) men and women to converge on the hutment that was being pounded with country-made bombs. The moment the CPI (M) workers went ahead, they were repeatedly shot at. Roqeya Bibi, Reza-ul Mondol, Khaim-ud din Mondol along with Mohd Barik, and Rafiz-ud din Mondol received multiple bullet wounds. Comrade Khaim-ud Din subsequently died when being taken to the Berhampore hospital. The rest have been engaged in a struggle with death as they lie in a grave condition at the same hospital. District convener of the Left Front and veteran CPI (M) leader, Madhu Bag has appealed to the villagers not to be provoked into uncalled for actions and to maintain peace in the area. Bag later told INN that after the Assembly elections, Pradesh Congress has been engaged in organising attacks on CPI (M) workers all over the Domkal, Farakka, and Bharatpur areas of Murshidabad. (INN)