Kolkata, Nov 7 (IANS) Launching a massive offensive against the Trinamul Congress-backed group, the Communist Party of India -Marxist (CPI-M) regained lost bases in West Bengal's Nandigram, as fresh violence claimed four lives in the trouble-torn area amid demands for central intervention by opposition leader Mamata Banerjee.
As violence escalated in Nandigram, veteran CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu changed his stand and said deployment of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) should be postponed and if needed talks should be initiated with Banerjee for the third time to find a political solution.
"I have told the chief minister (Buddhadeb Bhattacharya) to postpone deployment of central forces in Nandigram. Instead, we have asked him to arrange an all-party meeting to restore peace in troubled areas. If needed, we can talk to Mamata Banerjee again though previous all-party peace talks failed," Basu said after meeting of the ruling Left Front.
Hours later, Banerjee called a press conference to demand deployment of the army in Nandigram under central supervision and invocation of Article 355 of constitution in the state which mandates the union government to protect states against internal disturbance. She, however, expressed her willingness to sit for talks if the same was held at Basu's initiative.
"We demand immediate central intervention in the state under Article 355," she said as she threatened to unleash an agitation which "would be a free-for-all and with no idea what shape the same would take".
About 2,000 people fled from their homes in Nandigram since Tuesday to escape an offensive launched by CPI-M activists from the adjoining base of Khejuri to regain control of their lost ground.
"Four villagers have been killed since Tuesday. There is a report of one more death but the same is unofficial," West Bengal Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy said.
Roy virtually rebelled against the CPI-M's official stand and gave his own version of the situation in Nandigram. CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose was quick to retort that the home secretary was not aware of the full facts in Nandigram.
"About 2,000 people, largely Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) supporters, are homeless. The CPI-M has gained ground in Maheshpur and adjoining areas of Nandigram. Many CPI-M supporters have returned home," Roy said.
"Nandigram has turned into a war zone. We are trying our best to control the situation," he had said a day before.
Earlier, East Midnapore Superintendent of Police S.S. Panda told IANS that besides the four deaths about 10 people were injured in the violence since Tuesday, including a woman and a policeman.
The death toll in Nandigram violence rose to 32 since January when the region flared up over proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ), including a chemical hub, a plan that was later scrapped by the state government in the face of stiff resistance.
Though the SEZ was scrapped, a turf battle continued in Nandigram between the CPI-M and the Trinamul Congress-supported BUPC in the run-up to the local body elections in May next year.
CPI-M supporters Tuesday torched house after house in Nandigram, about 150 km from Kolkata, as they advanced from adjoining Khejuri to regain control as villagers fled for their lives, carrying whatever they could, reports from area said.
Some 200 CPI-M men from Khejuri armed with long-range rifles, single-barrel guns, pipe guns and bombs Tuesday crossed the Talpatti canal at Bahargunj and attacked Satengabari, Brindabanchowk, Jambari, Girirbazar, Keyakhali, Simulkunda, Saifullachowk and Raynagar villages of Nandigram.
"It is a planned attack. The CPI-M has assembled its armed supporters to mount the attack with the backing of the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) and crush the opposition," said West Bengal Public Works Department Minister Kshiti Goswami who belongs to the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), an ally of the CPI-M in the government.
According to one report, 30-year-old Manasi Das, in an advanced stage of pregnancy, was holding on to her four-year-old daughter Shiuli when two bullets pierced her thighs Tuesday. She hasn't seen her daughter since.
"Shots were being fired from Khejuri since early morning. From 8 a.m. the shouts of CPI-M workers drew near. I was hurrying out of the house with my daughter," Manasi told a Kolkata daily from the Tamluk Hospital.
"My husband Swapan had our six-year-old son Soumen with him. I was hit in the legs and collapsed. I have not met my daughter or any of my other family members since," she said.
Most residents of BUPC-controlled areas of Satengabari, Girirbazar, Brindabanchowk and Jambari fled their homes Tuesday. They were given shelter in school buildings elsewhere.
The CPI-M has been launching attacks from Khejuri where about 1,500 party supporters are living in refugee camps after they had to flee Nandigram in January.
On March 14, at least 14 villagers were killed in police firing in Nandigram when they resisted the entry of policemen to the area.
The chief minister has appealed to opposition parties to find a political solution to the Nandigram violence while seeking the presence of central security forces in the area.