Author: Correspondent
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: July 10, 2009
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090710/jsp/siliguri/story_11218449.jsp
17 labourers admitted, accused flees with
licensed gun
Nearly 20 labourers in a village in Karandighi
suffered gunshot wounds when a gang led by a local landowner fired at them
after an argument broke out over the construction of a road.
The shots were fired from a licensed double
barrelled gun and illegal firearms. After the incident, police said, landlord
Haji Aftab Hossain fled the village with the licensed gun.
Karandighi police said Hossain, had objected
to the construction of a road, a portion of which went over a plot allegedly
owned by him.
The villagers of Jhallapara, 70km from here,
on the other hand wanted the road, which would connect them to the state highway.
The police said hooligans owing allegiance to Hossain opened fire on the villagers
injuring 12 of them. Sources at the district hospital in Raiganj, however,
said 17 persons had been admitted with bullet wounds. The others were released
after first aid.
One of Hossain's sons, Sheikh Rakib, and four
others have been arrested.
One of those injured and admitted to the Raiganj
hospital, Mohammad Alam, said about 11am, the villagers, including women and
children, were engaged in earth work to construct the road when Hossain along
with about 20 men surrounded them.
"We were caught unawares and tried to
reason with them, but they suddenly started beating us up with lathis and
then began firing indiscriminately," the wounded man said lying beside
others on the floor of the hospital.
The police said from the very outset there
was a dispute between the villagers over the road going over Hossain's land
and several salisi meetings had been held to solve the problem.
Alam said last week at a salisi meeting, Hossain
had given verbal assurance that he would allow the use of his land to construct
the road. "That is why the villagers volunteered to give labour to build
the 1-kilometre stretch of road which is necessary for communication with
the outside world. Other landowners too had given up their land for the road."
He added that the land in question was 23 decimals or 23 hundredths of a cottah.
The additional police superintendent of Islampur,
James Kujur, said: "Hossain has fled with a licensed gun following the
incident. We are looking for him and his elder son, Noor Alam. We have set
up a police camp in the area."
The incident has taken a political turn as
Hossain is said to be an influential leader of the CPM in the area and those
injured mostly belonged to the Forward Bloc and the Congress.
Bloc MLA from Karandighi, Gokul Roy, condemned
the firing on innocent people. "We demand that the jotedar be arrested
and all arms seized from his house," Roy said.
Sources at the Raiganj hospital said most
of the injured had been hit by pellets fired from shotguns. Most of them were
hit on the limbs and back, a doctor on emergency duty said.
