Cooch Behar: EC says CISF firing absolutely necessary to save lives of voters, bans political visit for 72 hrs

Kolkata, Apr 10: The Election Commission on Saturday said that the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel firing at Sitalkuchi assembly seat in West Bengal's Cooch Behar took place in order to save lives of voters lined up at the polling booth.

''Recourse to open fire by CISF personnel became absolutely necessary in order to save lives of voters lined up at the polling booth, those of other polling personnel & their own lives as mob had attempted snatching their weapons,'' the Election Commission said during a press statement detailing the sequence of events that led to the firing.

The EC had earlier sought a detailed report on the incident.

Four people were killed as central forces opened fire allegedly after coming under attack from locals, who "attempted to snatch their rifles", in West Bengal''s Cooch Behar district, police said.

The Election Commission ordered stopping the voting exercise at polling station number 126 in Sitalkuchi where the incident happened when polling was underway.