It was well past 9 pm … They came from nowhere, rained bombs …frightened... the males like us took shelter in the paddy fields leaving back our women and children with hope that normally they are not touched…The women had shut themselves inside the houses… unable to catch them, the men of Anarul Sheikh cut open the grills… first hacked the inmates … my two grandsons cried for mercy but they would not listen … I helplessly watched these from distance… then they poured diesel on them and set them afire... all in front of my eyes… 10 people screamed as they died bit by bit… we cried hiding in the darkness watching the mayhem.”
That is how Mihilal and Manirul Sheikh describe the Tuesday night’s horror of Bagtui village in Birbhum district where a retaliatory attack by rival Trinamool Congress gangs allegedly fighting over the control of coal, sand and stone racket left 10 people, including 6 women and two children dead.
Anarul Sheikh is the local TMC block president and was hand-in-glove with deputy anchayat pradhan Bhadu Sheikh who was bombed to death barely two hours before the retaliatory attack. Bhadu and Anarul’s gang control the entire coal-sand-stone racket in the Bengal Jharkhand border, Manirul allege.
“Bhadu was a ‘don’ and very close to TMC district president and national working committee member Anubrata Mondal for whom he would ‘manage’ the elections in Rampurhat and other adjacent towns,” complains Mihilal, who has lost his mother, wife, a daughter and two grandchildren in the blood curdling attack.
More horrific is the fact that the posse of policemen posted as a precautionary measure outside the village would not rush to protect the victims. “Anarul stopped the police from coming … he even stopped the fire brigade personnel in the initial hours,” says Manirul demanding CBI investigation and “phansi” (death sentence) for the accused.
“We have no faith in this police force … when they could not save small children how can they conduct free and fare investigation … we want CBI and we want Phanshi for the culprits,” he says crying inconsolably.
The remaining members of the family have left the village and are hiding in a distant locality (name not to be disclosed). “Even here they are calling us up and issuing death threats,” he complains.
Not only the rival groups but almost half of the village has fled the area along with their poultry, cattle and what not.
“We are refugees in our own country dada … please tell Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee and whoever is there to help us … we have been reduced to insects,” he cries even as one hears about 20 km away the district SP silently leaves Bagtui as the sun touches the western rim. One wonders whether even the senior IPS officer is terrified of what might come after some down.
Meanwhile, a team of BJP led by Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari and the Left leadership led by CPI(M) State secretary Md Salim on Wednesday visited the Bagtui village.
Complaining that the Government was ignoring the treatment of the burn victims “who can be prime witness,” Adhikari said, “I visited the victims who are undergoing treatment and have offered help by way ofgetting them admitted to appropriate hospitals in Kolkata because there is no burn unit in Rampurhat hospital … the doctors told me to see that the patients are removed from here … but I am told that the Health Department has asked them to continue the treatment here in Rampurhat.”
