Communal violence hits W Bengal, 1 dead

Communal violence hit West Bengal — touted by its chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya as an ‘oasis of peace’ — today, leaving one person dead and eight injured, four of them critically, when members of two communities clashed in Hooghly district, an hour’s drive from here.

The police denied any casualty, however, and said only one person was critically injured in the violence. ‘‘One person, who was part of a group of hooligans chased by the police near a mosque at Sagoonbagan, fell and the bomb he was carrying in his pocket burst injuring him critically,’’ IG (Law and Order) Chayan Mukherjee told reporters. According to Mukherjee the gang gathered at three mosques in Sagoonbagan — under Chandannagar police station — while Friday prayers were being held and threw bombs there.

As the congregation began running in panic, policemen already deployed at the mosque started chasing the group. In the melee, said Mukherjee, one man was injured.