A procession of some 1,000 Trinamul supporters snaked into Satengabari village on Saturday with the body of Sania Khatoun. Meer Nurul, who had fled the village during an alleged CPM attack on Thursday night, was among them. “We heard gunshots on the way this morning and pleaded with police for security but they rebuffed us,” he said. The Trinamul marchers buried the little girl near her home but did not dare spend the night in the village. All of them returned to Maheshtala High School, now doubling as a refugee camp. The picture above shows one group returning to the school building. Pictures by Ranjit Ghara

Nandigram, May 9: Two CPM supporters were beaten to death today in a Nandigram village after they and other cadres allegedly shot and thrashed villagers for defying their diktat and daring to vote.

Police found their bodies on the banks of the Hooghly near Jadubarichar village.

An officer confirmed that several CPM cadres had been chased down and thrashed by a Trinamul mob for the attack they had launched earlier in the day to fish out men from the rival camp and “teach them a lesson”.

An elderly man was shot in both his legs because his son, a Trinamul leader who had ur- ged supporters to vote on Thursday, was not at home.

As in Satengabari, where the hunt for Trinamul supporters had claimed toddler Sania Khatoun on Thursday, armed gangs stormed into homes of Opposition leaders and, not finding them, beat up and shot at their relatives. Among those who bore the brunt were two boys whose fathers had fled.

Villagers alleged that policemen posted only a kilometre from Jadubarichar had refused to budge when they complained about the group of 30 that carried out the “search operation” for eight hours from six in the morning.

The delay was to ensure a safe passage across the Hooghly for the CPM cadres, Trinamul supporters alleged.

The police made the first bid to enter Jadubarichar ar- ound 2pm, after villagers atta- cked three of their vehicles at Bhutamore. A bullet hit the jeep of East Midnapore additional superintendent of police N. Chakrabarty.

From her bed at Nandigram hospital, Tapasi Pramanik said: “We had heard gun- shots and blasts through last night. The CPM men, some of them strangers, surrounded our house in the morning, armed with iron rods and firearms. They asked where my husband Shiba was.”

Her 70-year-old father-in-law, Srinath, who was sitting in the verandah, told them he had no idea. “They pounced on him and hit him with rods. When he tried to flee, they shot him in his legs,” Tapasi said.

The man shot in his legs being taken to hospital

She was hit, too, when she jumped to Srinath’s rescue. “They didn’t spare my 10-year-old son,” Tapasi said.

Her neighbour Sushil Das managed to save himself by squeezing between the tiled roof of his hut and the bam- boo structure supporting it.

“They looked for him all over the house and beat me up when they failed to trace him. They threatened to kill me if I went to the police,” his wife Minu said.

Sukumar Das’s 16-year-old son Bilash was also beaten up.

Jadubarichar is in the Trinamul-dominated part of Nandigram, but also has substantial CPM support. The victims, however, could not recognise many of the attackers, which means some of them had been brought in for the attack.

Trinamul supporters from the nearby Garchakraberia, Hazrakata and Kalicharanpur villages reached Jadubarichar before the police and chased down at least 16 alleged CPM activists. Six of them were handed over to the police when they finally arrived.

Late tonight, the police rescued eight men who were in hiding since being thrashed by the Trinamul mob this afternoon and admitted them to hospital.

District police chief P.K. Ghosh said two other armed men had been held in connection with the incident.

The CPM identified the dead as Abdullah Khan, 45, and Sahauddin Khan, 47. The party has called for a 12-hour East Midnapore district bandh on Sunday.

The state chief secretary has asked district magistrate C.D. Lama to convene an all-party meeting.

Uluberia murder: A man in his 60s was killed when alleged Trinamul supporters hurled a bomb last night.