Stung by the police ‘action’ which the Bloc secretary Ashok Ghosh termed as barbaric, the party called a 24-hour statewide bandh on Wednesday which has been supported by the opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress besides the SUCI.
But the CPM which has gone red over the unilateral action of the second largest party in the Front, decided to oppose it, setting in the process another major intra-Front confrontation unseen in the last 30 years of the Left rule in Bengal.
Demonstrators belonging to Bloc were participating in a law-violation prgramme when a section suddenly turned violent, triggering a pitched battle with police, reports said.
After the tear gas and cane charge failed to disperse the rampaging mob that tried to torch the SDO office at Dinhata, police opened fire killing two Bloc supporters on the spot while as many succumed to their injuries in the hospital.
Vehicles torched
At least fifty protestors and 25 policemen were injured in the brickbatting as the unruly mob set afire two police vehicles and blocked traffic in the national highway to prevent dispatch of police reinforcements.Bloc MLA from Cooch Behar who was leading the demonstration was also injured, reports said.
Security has been beefed up in the district and RAF have been deployed at vulnerable points as a precautionary measure.
“It is a barbaric act by the police of the West Bengal government and I find there is no difference between the police firing on farmers at Nandigram and Singur and Dinhata,” Ghosh told a hurriedly-convened news conference here.
Asked to explain the Bloc’s continued presence in the Front in view of the latest incident, Mr Ghosh described it as a “political necessity” and not a “compulsion” and denied that it “is a marriage of convenience.”
“The day we feel there is no need to remain within the Front, the party high command will take an appropritate decision,” he said. Bloc,it may be mentioned, already decided to fight the coming panchayat elections in Bengal and assembly polls in Tripura alone.
Surprisingly, the maverick CPM leader and transport minister Subhas Chakraborty who described the police firing on the Left supporters as unprecedented in the history of 30 years of the Left Front regime here, demanded a judicial inquiry into the Dinhata killings and said all state government buses would be deployed tomorrow to foil the bandh.
The CPM state secretariat which reviewed the situation and bandhcall of its largest ally during an emergent meeting here, expressed regret over death of bloc supporters, but claimed in the same breath that the demonstration was not peaceful and police were attacked and attempts to torch government buildings forced police to act.
According to Bloc which has been in touch with other allies like the RSP and CPI, the state government has officially put all SEZs on hold in the state,but has still been inviting companies to invest in at least six proposed SEZ projects. This has led to protests by the Opposition and the Left allies who have questioned the government's real motive.
