KOLKATA: West Bengal's Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district continued to remain tense and blockaded on Wdnesday after residents alleged that about 16 people from several villages of the area went missing' since Tuesday's firing, that claimed two lives.
"Since Tuesday's firing, about 16 people have gone missing from several villages of the area. We have made a list of the missing people," said agitator Ismail Sheikh told Express.
The allegations of the agitators that cadres of Trinamool strongman Arabul Islam had fired upon and threw bombs on the protesting villagers in the guise of policemen on Tuesday were bolstered when uniforms of WB Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) were found abandoned by the roadside, from Machibhanga to Gajipur villages in Bhangar. However, police sources said that the cops were forced to shun their uniforms in the wake of the public ire.
Meanwhile, villagers have vowed to continue with the protests until Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee herself comes and announces that the power station would be discontinued. "We do not believe any announcements from Nabanna (state secretariat). Didi has to come to Bhangar and promise that the project would be discontinued. If not, we would cut roads leading to Bhangar," said a member of the committee formed to protect the agricultural lands.
More than 20,000 agitators, from 30 villages in Bhangar, held a peace rally in the area on Wednesday with black flags, bands and then prayed for the two deceased villagers.
On the other hand, Mamata, after a review meeting with top police officials of the state at CID Headquarters Bhavani Bhavan on Wednesday, ordered the police to track down outsiders aiming to
foment trouble in Bhangar but not 'touch' any of the local residents. Nabanna had on Monday smelled 'Maoist' influence in the agitation after some 50 Jadavpur University students and civil society joined the fray.
Meanwhile, politics boiled in the state over the deaths and agitation in Bhangar. CPM held a public meet in Kolkata where top state leaders and politburo members said that Bhangar would lay the foundation for another 'paribarton' in West Bengal.
"Bhangar will show the way for change in TMC government in state. After giving the two talaqs to the BJP in Bihar and Delhi, the people of Uttar Pradesh will give the final talaaq to the saffron party," Rajya Sabha MP and politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
While Rajya Sabha Trinamool MP and former railway minister Mukul Roy claimed that police did not open fire on the agitating villagers, politburo member Biman Bose claimed that it was the police that killed the two agitators.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President and Baharampur MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhury on Wednesday visited the houses of the deceased and said that while Mamata Banerjee rode to power on the peasants movements in Nandigram and Singur, she aimed her guns on the same peasants in Bhangar.