West Bengal on Friday continued to hit the headlines for yet another bomb-related act of violence when four people, including the circle inspector and the officer in-charge of Parui police station in Birbhum district, got seriously injured after bombs were hurled at them. The villagers were, allegedly, provoked by Trinamool Congress goons from all sides at Chowmandalpur village.
According to sources, the large posse of policemen had gone there to conduct raids following a tip-off that some of the houses have been storing bombs. Officer in-charge Prasenjit Dutta — who is currently recovering in Suri district hospital ICU after being rescued by a backup force led by ASP Ananda Roy — explains, “As we were approaching the village the locals suddenly surrounded us and attacked us with bombs and brickbats.”
The driver of the police van, Rafiqul, also escaped unhurt. “It was like a veritable battlefield and we were attacked with bombs and brickbats from all the directions by scores of villagers who were armed with other weapons like lathis, rods and swords,” he added.
But, that was not the end of the story as more astonishment awaited the police in the adjacent village, Sattore, where a simultaneous raid yielded 11 drums of crude bombs. The bombs had been stored in two abandoned rooms of a rural health care centre which had been allegedly transformed into a hideout for anti-social elements for the past a few years.
“We have not yet counted the bombs but it could go to several thousands, perhaps the biggest such haul ever, of crude bombs in the State,” said a senior police officer adding that the bombs were reportedly stored by the men of Sheikh Mustafa, a local Trinamool-aided goon.
“The bombs had been stored for future skirmishes and to ensure release the village from BJP stranglehold” a local Trinamool leader reportedly told the police. A team of experts from Durgapur was rushed to the spot to analyse the bombs and 14 people were arrested in this connection,” the ASP said.
Friday’s was not the first time that the police had been attacked by the ruling party goons; similar incidents have taken place on several occasions during the past one year.
Parui, which shot into prominence last year after Sagar Ghosh the father of a rebel Trinamool panchayat poll candidate Hriday Ghosh was shot dead, saw the entire rebel Trinamool leadership and workers switching sides to the BJP with the effect that the whole block area is now controlled by the saffron outfit.
Parui also hit the national headlines because Sagar Ghosh’s murder came barely a couple of days after district Trinamool president Anubrata Mandal told a poll rally held nearby to raid and torch the rebel workers’ houses and bomb police vehicles if they intervened.
Curiously, not only no action was taken by the State Government against Mandal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called him an asset of her party and he was even frequently seen sharing the podium with her.
Whether Friday’s attack on the police was the fallout of Mandal’s reaction or not, the Birbhum strongman refused to take calls when The Pioneer tried to contact him.
Reacting sharply to the incident BJP State president Rahul Sinha said the Chief Minister owed a statement as “it were not the political parties but the armed forces of which she is the head as the Home Minister and Chief Minister was under attack.”
The attack was a natural fallout of Anubrata Mandal’s public speech and the Chief Minister’s blind patronage to him, State Opposition leader Suryakanto Mishra said.