Kolkata: As violent political clashes continued over the formation of the state Panchayat board in West Bengal, five persons were killed and nearly 30 were taken injured in the state on Wednesday.
Notably, armed clashes took place between groups allegedly belonging to the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in North 24 Parganas district’s Amdanga block late on Tuesday night. “The clash erupted centring around the Gram Panchayat board formation in a number of villages in the block,” an officer from Amdanga police station told IANS.
According to local residents, two of the deceased were Trinamool Congress activists while the third person belonged to the CPI-M. Police have arrested 12 people including CPI-M district committee member Ahmed Khan, for inciting unrest in the area that was found littered with crude bombs, splinters, cartridges on Wednesday morning.
The political parties blamed each other for the clash and claimed their members were stopped from forming the board. As of now, since August 25, ten people were allegedly killed in political clashes over the Panchayat board’s formation in different Bengal districts.
The situation in several districts has been tense over the last few days over the Panchayat board’s formation after the Supreme Court permitted the notification of the results of 20,159 uncontested seats in the state Panchayat polls.
Meanwhile, appealing to the people to maintain peace, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “I do not support violence. Every death is sad. I feel bad if a person dies in violence irrespective of his political affiliation. The people have voted in gram panchayat elections and there is no need to indulge in violence.”
Banerjee further said that she had called up “about 15 to 20 places” and requested them to maintain peace. “I have told my party to maintain peace while forming the panchayat boards”, she said.
