West Bengal’s Bhatpara area of North 24 Parganas district remained tense on Friday, a day after two persons were killed in firing during a pitched battle fought in the area between two groups of people. Five others have been admitted with splinter injuries in a Kolkata hospital. Bhatpara is approximately 30 km from Kolkata and under the jurisdiction of the Barrackpore police commissionerate.
Section 144 was imposed in the area after yesterday’s violence, and police continued search operations to recover bombs, locally made firearms and to hound out “outsiders”. Following the violence – a pitched battle that involved firing and hurling of bombs – chief minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with senior officials. Home secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay later said that the violence had been caused by “outsiders”.
The administration shifted the Barrackpore police commissioner Tanmay Roychowdhury elsewhere and decided to appoint Manoj Verma as the new CP of Barrackpore.
Bhatpara has been on the boil from the time Trinamool Congress’ lawmaker from the area Arjun Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prior to the Lok Sabha polls on being denied a party ticket. He was later fielded by the BJP from Barrackpore and he went on to win it.
Bhatpara and Kankinara – the epicentre of violence – remained on the edge since Friday morning, with local people agitating from time to time as police teams held search operations. Some crude bombs were found too.
Later, a BJP delegation led by MP Arjun Singh held a demonstration outside the Barrackpore commissionerate office. Singh alleged that the two persons had been killed in police firing. This however, was denied by the police.
The situation continued to be tense as the bodies of the deceased – Rambabu Shaw and Dharamveer Shaw – is to reach their homes later in the day, and the BJP wants to organise a march in the area. While the administration did not want to give permission, the BJP leaders were looking to organise a protest march with the bodies. BJP is sending a central team from New Delhi to Barrackpore tomorrow.
