2 hurt as cops open ‘fire at farmers’

Tension had been simmering at Haroa for the last couple of days after the villagers started agitating against alleged eviction of “land patta” (title) owners and fish-pond owners of the area by local Trinamool Congress leaders. Significantly,Surjyakanta Mishra of CPM,leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly,visited the area and alleged that thousands of poor farmers were forcibly evicted from the villages by Trinamool leaders.

Today,clash broke out between the supporters of Trinamool and CPM over the capture of fish pond spreading over 60 bighas of land at Haroa. A huge police force and Rapid Action Force were rushed to the spot. The situation went out of control after a group of CPM workers allegedly pelted stones at the police personnel. Soon,the police started firing at the agitators injuring two persons. The injured persons – Deepak Bera and Soharaj Sarkar – were admitted in Basirhat hospital. “An armed group of CPM cadres exploded bombs and fired at police. But we resisted and chased them away. We have arrested four persons from the spot,” said Champak Bhattacharya,SP,North 24 Parganas.

Significantly,police denied having opened fire at the mob. Siddhinath Gupta,DIG,Presidency range,said,“We did not receive any report of police firing or anybody getting injured. We are looking into the matter.” Nirmal Ghosh,Trinamool president of North 24 Parganas,however,said the police fired on unruly mob in self-defence. He said the incident happened when police tried to unearth the illegal arms in the area and were attacked by CPM cadres.”

Later,State Food Minister Jyotipruya Mallick rushed to the spot.