Violence mars Bengal bandh, Nandigram simmering

Kolkata/Nandigram, Jan 08(UNI) Life was partially affected in the opposition-sponsored 24-hour bandh, marked by violence, police lathicharge and large scale arrests in West Bengal today as terror stalked Nandigram where four policemen were injured in a clash with villagers.

Members of "Krishi Jami Raksha Committee", opposing the reported acquisition of land, burnt down a CPI(M) party office at Dinabandhupur under Nandigram police station this morning and attacked police that entered the area for the first time after seven people were killed in group clashes yesterday.

With one more body recovered from the area during the day, Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray put the official figure at five, even though police was yet to take in their custody of two more bodies lying in the interior where hostile villagers dug up roads and put up barricades at several points to prevent entry from outside.

Elsewhere in the state, sporadic violence marked the bandh as supporters of the Trinamool Congress, Congress and SUCI, who gave separate calls for the bandh, clashed with police, squatted on railway tracks, blocked roads and damaged Government vehicles.

Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee told UNI that altogether 373 bandh supporters had been arrested from different parts of the city on various charges. Of them, 221 were Congress activists, 90 belonged to the SUCI and 61 were Trinamool supporters.

The total number of arrests in the state was more than 600 while trying to put up vehicles and stop vehicles forcibly.

Most of the shops in the city downed their shutters and financial inistitutions also remained closed. Most of the school and colleges also remained closed today.

Though some private and state run buses plied the roads and a good number of people ventured out during the peak office hours, the flow turned thinner late in the day following several incidents of clashes in the city.

However, city's metro services remained unaffected while industries allover the state and the tea gardens functioned as ususal. While normal functioning was reported from Kolkata airport and both Kolkata and Halida ports, normal attendance was reported from the coal mine areas. The IT sector saw near 100 per cent attendance.

The attendance in Government offices was reported to be below normal while some banks were open in certain areas.

Supporters of Trinamool Congress and SUCI clashed with police in separate incidents at the Hazra crossing in South Kolkata, considered to be a stronghold of the oppsoition.

Congress, SUCI, and Trinamool Congress supporters were engaged in series of clashes with police elsewhere in the state while trying to put up blockades.

Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee courted arrest in the city's Gariahat area while leading agitators who had put up blockade in the Gariahat crossing.

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