Firing at Nandigram again

NANDIGRAM (WB): Gun shots rang out in villages of Nandigram again this morning creating panic among the residents.

In the villages of Chatingabari, Kamalpur, Dakapara and others in the troubled Nandigram block I intermittent gun shots rang out as panicked people were seen leaving their homes for safe places, eyewitnesses said.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has ruled out the entry of police into the district.

East Midnapore district superintendent of police G A Srinivas confirming the resumption of firing said that it first started at Chatingabari and then spread to other villages.

He said he had sent the officer-in-charge of the Nandigram police station to Dakapur. Some 200 policemen were camping at the outlying villages of Tekhali and Bhangaberia to keep a watch on the situation.

A protest-march by members of the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee, spearheading the agitation against land-acquirement, went round some villages, condemning yesterday's attack against theatre artistes and intellectuals who were distributing relief materials among the homeless at Nandigram, by CPI (M) supporters.

Nandigram has been tense since Sunday when one person was killed in clashes between supporters of the CPI-M and the BUPC.