Girl phone shoot threat saves family - Attackers in Birbhum flee after college student tells them they are being filmed

Snehamoy Chakraborty Nanoor, Oct. 23: A college girl filmed on her cellphone two supposed Trinamul supporters who allegedly targeted her house last night, while their associates fled when she shouted from the rooftop that the footage would be shown to police.

At least six youths allegedly hurled a bomb at the house of a cable operator in Nanoor, the result of a protracted faction feud, after which his daughter shouted the warning at them.

The girl requested not to be identified as she feared for her life. The cable operator's family was once loyal to Trinamul leader Sheikh Kajal, who is on the run after being charged in a murder case.

The sources said the attackers were followers of former Trinamul MLA Gadadhar Hazra. Nanoor, which has a history of political violence, has been riven by factional clashes between the factions led by Kajal and Hazra for several years.

Hazra today denied the attackers were his followers.

The girl said she decided to use her cellphone when she realised no neighbour would come to their rescue.

"In Nanoor, clashes and attacks with bombs and bullets are common. But what the girl did is rare, probably the first in recent memory. Her presence of mind saved the family," a police officer said.

The attack, according to the girl, happened around 11pm yesterday. The police today detained two suspected Trinamul activists whom they identified as Jadav Samanta and Babulal Das.

In a video given by the girl to this paper, two women and a man were heard yelling at some people. Most of the footage shows darkness and flickers of light.

In the middle of the seven-minute-plus video, a man in a white and blue check shirt comes into view and speaks facing the camera. He is inaudible. Then he walks away in the darkness.

The girl identified him as Jadav Samanta.

Another person, in a purple T-shirt, is seen in the video hiding behind a pole. A light is shone on him repeatedly but he stays behind the pole.

The girl today said his name was Babulal Das.

"We were watching TV after dinner when there were loud bangs on the door. Someone shouted that he had come to kill me. When I screamed out in fear, they started banging on the door with iron rods. We fled to the roof and saw at least six youths standing outside with bombs in their hands. They threatened to blow up the house," the cable operator said.

The video does not show the presence of the four other people, as claimed by the girl's father. But at one point a ball of fire is seen rising near the house, which the girl said was a bomb that burst before it hit her home.

"I knew the villagers would not come forward to help us. So, I thought of using my phone. I knew the two youths leading the group and focused the camera on them," the girl said.

The girl and her brother shouted out that the people outside were being filmed.

"Hearing this, they hid behind concrete electric posts and started hurling stones towards the house. I asked my brother to focus the torch on them," the 22-year-old said.

The police visited the house this morning and found an unexploded bomb.

The girl's father was all praise for her presence of mind. "Had it not been for her, we would have been killed," he said.

He said he once owed allegiance to the Sheikh Kajal group but quit Trinamul early this year because of factional feuds.

Asked if the attackers were his followers, Hazra said: "The incident has nothing to do with Trinamul. The cable operator is with the CPM."

The Trinamul vice-president of Nanoor, Ashok Ghosh, said: "He (the girl's father) belonged to the Sheikh Kajal faction. But now, he is no longer with our party."