The charred houses at Birpara. Telegraph picture

Birpara, April 8: A mob of about 250 tea garden workers attacked a trade union leader and his henchman, killing one person and setting houses on fire in a rerun of the massacre in neighbouring Dalgaon tea estate.

Nandeshwar Gope, the Citu secretary of Birpara tea estate in Jalpaiguri district, escaped the mob that split into groups and struck at two labour lines of the garden almost at the same time this morning.

Gope’s right-hand man Birsa Oraon had been arrested a few days ago on a pending warrant. His family fled today seeing the mob approach. Police have provided Gope protective custody.

At Dipa labour lines, suspected RSP supporters ransacked Gope’s deserted house and set it ablaze. The neighbouring house also bore the brunt. As the residents fled, Singa Oraon, 46, was stabbed to death and Budhuram Oraon wounded. He was later admitted to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital.

Ten minutes after 7 am, the other group descended on the neighbouring lines where Birsa Oraon lived and burnt his house.

Superintendent of police Siddh Nath Gupta said: “It’s a political clash between two parties. Raids are on to nab the attackers.” Over 50 people have been arrested and 20 others detained.

Looking at their wrecked house from a distance, Birsa’s son Panchait Oraon said: “We never imagined such an incident could happen here. We fled the house seeing the mob armed with daggers, swords and rods.”

Sukra Oraon, a CPM member of the Sishujhumra gram panchayat, said: “Everybody is a CPM supporter in the garden. Recently, anti-socials from outside instigated a few labourers to join the RSP. It is the RSP which is responsible for today’s incident.”

A woman who was among the attackers trained the gun on Gope. “He was corrupt and so were his accomplices. They used to extort money from the labourers and had unleashed terror. The attack was an outburst against his accumulated sins,” said Sundari Oraon, who was arrested.

About 1,000 garden workers had attacked a former Citu leader’s house in neighbouring Dalgaon, setting it afire and killing 19 of his supporters. In Calcutta, CPM state secretary Anil Biswas said today’s incident had nothing to do with last November’s massacre at Dalgaon.