NEW DELHI, July 7: Three Trinamool Congress workers, including a member of local village panchayat, were killed by unidentified attackers in Canning town of West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas on Thursday morning and immediately sparked off blame counter-blame game between the TMC and the BJP.
The police said Swapan Majhi, Trinamool member of Gopalpur village panchayat, was on his way to attend the preparatory meeting being held ahead of the Trinamool’s July 21 Sahid Divas programme at the party office in Gopalpur under Canning West Assembly constituency. Majhi was accompanied by Bhutnath Pramanik and Jhantu Haldar, two booth presidents.
The three were riding a motorbike and as they approached Pier Park in the Kachua area, the attackers blocked the road to stop them and shot Majhi from point-blank range. “The miscreants first shot Majhi. The two others started running and they were shot too from a distance from behind. The miscreants to confirm death further used a sharp weapon on them,” said a senior police official.
A team of district police and CID have reached the spot and are examining the area. The police who have launched an investigation into the killings, are yet to ascertain the motive behind the murders. The bodies of the Trinamool workers have been sent for autopsy.
The TMC leaders blamed the BJP for the murders and accused them of creating an environment of fear in the state. “The BJP is trying to disturb peace in Bengal,” said TMC’s spokesperson Kunal Ghosh. “The three deceased had yesterday met our local MLA and had told them that they were under threat and that they had received information that they were likely to be murdered. Before they could go to the police the incident took place,” said TMC’s youth leader Debangshu Bhattacharya.
The Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Suvendhu Adhikari launched a counter-attack against the TMC for the violence in the state. “It is a fallout of their infighting. The West Bengal Police are busy erecting a watch tower outside the residence of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Hence, the law and order situation of the state is getting worse,” added Adhikari.
(Manas Dasgupta)