KOLKATA: Ten years after Nandigram police firing claimed lives of 14 villagers agitating against an upcoming chemical hub, seriously dented CPM's image and finally catapulted Trinamool Congress to power in West Bengal; two of the villagers protesting against an upcoming power substation were killed in alleged police firing at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Tuesday.
While residents of villages of Bhangar, who have been protesting against the upcoming power substation on their agricultural land since 2013 when land was acquired for the project, alleged that Bhangar residents 32-year-old Mofijul Khan and 22-year-old Alamgir were killed in police firing on Tuesday, additional DG (law and order) Anuj Sharma claimed police did not open fire and the villagers died as a result of firing by 'outsiders'.
Reminiscent of agitations in Nandigram and Lalgarh, villagers blocked roads leading to Bhangar with uprooted trees and pelted stones on the police on Tuesday morning. The police retaliated with rubber bullets and tear gas shells. Villagers even alleged of police excesses in villages in Bhangar on Monday night, when the movement's leader Kalu Sheikh was allegedly picked up by the police. He was released as soon as residents of Machidanga village took to the streets. Though the agitation has been brewing for more than three years against the land acquisition for the power substation, the protest became intense last week when it was announced that the project was on the verge of completion and would be inaugurated soon.
After the intensification of the protest, the West Bengal government announced that the project would be suspended. After the news of near-completion of the project led to intensification of the agitation, political parties, civil society and students of Jadavpur University also joined the protest. According to sources, state secretariat Nabanna has smelled that there may be Maoists among the 40 Jadavpur University students who went to Bhangar to join the protesters and has sent a team of Kolkata Police to the agitating area to investigate the role of the students in formenting trouble there.