Author: DHNS
Publication: Deccan Herald
Date: May 5, 2003
URL: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may05/n3.asp
In a bitter violence spiral smacking
of reprisal killings before the crucial panchayat elections in West Bengal,
six Congress supporters were hacked to death and several hutments torched
by miscreants in North Dinajpur and East Midnapore districts last evening,
signalling a bitter war over a zone that has been extremely hotting up,
delayed official reports received here said today.
While four were picked up from their
respective homes and done to death in Chopra under Raigunj in North Dinajpur
district which had witnessed killing of as many CPM activists and block
level leaders a couple of days before, two were murdered and Congress leader
Farzan Ali's daughter was raped and deserted in a roadside by miscreants
in Midnapore on Friday as panicky Congress supporters fled the villages
to escape the alleged wrath of armed CPM goons.
At least 26 people were rounded
up by police in the past 24 hours in connection with the killings in two
areas, reports said.
State Congress Vice-President Pradip
Bhattacharya charged the CPM with spreading terror in Raiganj in North
Bengal besides party strongholds in Midnapore by setting houses afire even
as a Congress delegation led by PCC chief Pranab Mukherjee and party Lok
Sabha chief whip P R Das Munshi reached Raiganj today for an on-the-spot
inquiry.
Both the CPM and Congress demanded
high level inquiry into the killings, while CPM State Secretary and Politburo
member Anil Biswas claimed that the Congress had hatched a conspiracy to
trigger violence before polls to derive as much benefit as possible.
"But this design will be resisted
by our men," Mr Biswas cautioned.
A worried Chief Minister Buddhadev
Bhattacharya who appealed for peace, despatched two of his Cabinet Ministers
Ashok Bhattacharya and Manab Mukherjee to broker peace in Raiganj that
witnessed a bloodbath.
