Gun-wielding youth in bandh ruckus - Congress alleges thrashing and flashing of firearm by INTTUC activists

A youth (in blue shirt) holding a firearm runs during the alleged attack on  Congress
workers by INTTUC supporters in Karnajora, North Dinajpur, on Tuesday. Picture by Nantu Dey

TT, Aug. 18: Congress supporters in North Dinajpur today said they were attacked by Trinamul-backed INTTUC activists and at least one of them was carrying a firearm and threatened to shoot them.

An unidentified youth in North Dinajpur's Karnajora, about 4km from Raiganj, was seen running with a firearm this morning, but as both Trinamul and Congress supporters were present on the scene, it was not clear to which outfit he belonged.

Trinamul has denied that INTTUC activists had attacked anyone during a 12-hour bandh called by the Congress in Bengal.

The Congress said at least 12 leaders and supporters were injured in the North Dinajpur attack. Five of them were admitted to the district hospital in Raiganj.

All shops and education institutions were shut in Raiganj, one of the few Congress pockets left in Bengal.

Around 9am, North Dinajpur Congress president and Raiganj MLA Mohit Sengupta led a group of around 100 leaders and supporters to the district administrative hub at Karnajora and shouted slogans against the state government. Around 10.30am, when the Congress supporters started leaving, the INTTUC flag-bearing youths came in around 20 motorbikes.

After beating up some of the Congress supporters, the INTTUC youths smashed the motorbikes of the Congress group.

According to one Congress supporter, one of the INTTUC youths chased them brandishing a firearm. "We will shoot you if we see you in the area," the youth reportedly said. After 20 minutes, the INTTUC youths sped away.

The Congress pradhan of Kamalabari panchayat, Bistu Chandra Barman, said: " The INTTUC supporters mercilessly beat us up. Some of us were thrown to the ground and hit with lathis and punched and kicked. One of them openly brandished a gun at us and threatened to kill us. All this happened in full view of the police. The police did nothing."

Sengupta said if no action was taken against those involved in the attack in 24 hours, "we will launch an agitation".

District Trinamul secretary Arindam Sarkar, who is also the INTTUC president of North Dinajpur, conceded that party supporters had gone to Karnajora but denied they were involved in the attack.

"I am in Calcutta. But I have learnt that since the morning today the Congress had been forcibly shutting down shops and were preventing government employees from going to work.... Our supporters went to Karnajora to protest against the Congress's highhandedness. They were not involved in any violence," he said.

North Dinajpur police superintendent Syed Waqar Raza said "there were allegations that firearms were used, but we have no evidence of that".

In Malda, MP Mausam Noor said she was heckled by the police while leading a demonstration, but the police denied the allegation.

In Sabang, where a Chhatra Parishad student's death allegedly at the hands of a Trinamul Chhatra Parishad group served as a spark for the bandh, some Congress workers barged into the chamber of the block development officer and asked two employees there to go out of the room.

As the employees stood up, the Congress workers started hurling plastic chairs to the ground and one of them shattered the glass top of the table with a stick.

When the Congress workers were leaving, the BDO entered the office complex. The bandh supporters asked the BDO not to go into his chamber. He left, but came back to work later.