Tamluk, Aug. 24: A gunbattle in Nandigram today claimed a Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee activist.

Madhab Mondal, 32, who was hit in the stomach, died on his way to a Calcutta hospital.

The Trinamul Congress-led committee has called for a 12-hour Nandigram bandh tomorrow.

“Madhab Mondal was killed in an exchange of fire between CPM and Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee activists. We’ve sent a large contingent to Ranichak, on the Nandigram-Khejuri border, to tackle the situation,” said East Midnapore superintendent of police G.A. Srinivas.

Today’s fight broke almost a month’s lull since two CPM workers were killed at Tekhali and Bhangabera on July 29.

Today’s trouble started around 11am, when committee supporters asked three CPM men tilling their land at Satengabari, about 165km from Calcutta, to get lost. An altercation started and CPM supporters from the village, now a committee stronghold, came out in support of the farmers.

A committee mob then ransacked houses belonging to CPM supporters.

After the news spread, a group of CPM workers from the party-run Bahargunj shelter in Khejuri, on the other side of the Talpatti canal, marched towards Satengabari armed with revolvers and pipe guns.

Seeing them, the committee activists at Ranichak rushed to the local mosque and asked villagers to fetch the 20-odd policemen from a nearby camp. “The sight of the armed personnel scared away the CPM supporters. But they returned with more people half an hour later,” said Amalendu Pramanick, 30, a Trinamul supporter.

The police fled seeing about 60 armed CPM men approaching the Talpatti bridge, alleged Kalpana Mondal, 28.

The committee’s supporters had got themselves armed by that time. The gunfight stopped around 2.30pm as a contingent of the police and the Rapid Action Force took position between the warring groups.

CPM leader Ashok Guria claimed that the committee started the violence. “It’s a plan to disrupt the peace process and prevent our supporters from returning home.”