Tamluk, Nov. 4: A youth caught in a fresh crossfire on the Nandigram-Khejuri border this evening was hospitalised with a wounded leg.

The bullet hit Sheikh Jamaluddin minutes after senior police officers led by inspector-general (law and order) Raj Kanojia left following a visit to Khejuri and Tekhali in Nandigram.

The 24-year-old, a resident of Naynan village near Satengabari, was walking along the Talpatti canal on his way from a relative’s house in Ranichowk when the bullet, allegedly fired from Khejuri, hit him.

“The youth was hit after we left Khejuri on our way back. He has been hospitalised,” said East Midnapore police chief S.S. Panda.

Leaders of the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee alleged that the CPM started firing from Khejuri while the officials were there.

“CPM activists fired from Bahargunj in Khejuri. The police and the party had planned the joint attack,” said committee convener Abu Taher.

Kanojia said there have been no “major incidents of violence” in the past few days.

Shipyard offer

Bharti Shipyard and Apeejay group, which plan a shipyard over 400 acres in East Midnapore’s Geonkhali, said 40 per cent of the displaced villagers would get jobs in the unit.

But the executives, who today met around 300 residents of Badur, Bhangagora and Deulpota villages, where the land will have to be acquired, said the unit wouldn’t be “forced” on the villagers.

The Pratirodh Committee formed in Geonkhali boycotted the meeting.