2 killed, ten injured before Panchayat polls

Kolkata, May 02 (UNI) Two people were killed and ten injured in separate districts in the past 24 hours, barely ten days before the first phase Panchayat polls beginning May 11.

Official sources today said Trinamool Congress worker Rafiqul Mollah (28) was killed and four of his accomplices were injured, one of them seriously, when a crude bomb exploded at Majampur village of Bakjuri Panchayat in North 24 Parganas district yesterday.

They said a procession of CPI(M) activists, campaigning for the elections, was passing by the road when the bomb exploded.

Trinamool Congress Block general secretary Hafij Ahmed, however, alleged that the CPI(M) supporters had hurled bombs on their workers.

He said the injured Trinamool workers were admitted to the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital here.

However, CPI(M) Panchayat Samiti leader Bhuban Mondal accused the Trinamool activists of assembling at Majampur with the intention of attacking their procession.

In a separate incident five persons were injured seriously in a clash between CPI(M) and Congress supporters at Sarfarajpur under Baduria police station in the same district.

A Congress activist had been arrested in this connection, police said.

Local Congress leaders alleged that while campaigning CPI(M) speakers abused a deceased Congress leader which led to the clash, in which at least three Congress and two CPI(M) supporters were injured.

In yet another incident, BJP activists allegedly torched a CPI(M) supporter's house at Korakati under Sandeshkhali police station in the district late last night. Party leaders, however, refuted the charges.

A report from Krishnagar in Nadia district said miscreants killed a local Congress leader and seriously injured his accomplice at the Taranipur Panchayat area.

Police said Majid Biswas(30), Congress candidate for the Panchayat elections, was returning home after campaigning late last night when some attackers stabbed him to death. They also seriously injured his accomplice.

Mr Biswas died on the spot while the injured person was rushed to the Shaktinagar hospital.

An investigation was on, police said, adding that no one had been arrested so far.

UNI XC PL KLC1736