Tamluk, March 2: Violence reared its head again in Nandigram today, leaving a 32-year-old man seriously injured.

Debashis Mondal, a supporter of the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee, was shot at in the abdomen and left thigh by CPM activists, police said.

This is the first time the Pratirodh Committee or the CPM has used firearms since the recapture of Nandigram last November.

The incident comes two days before chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s visit to distribute patta to landless farmers. Around 1 this afternoon, armed CPM activists went around Brindabanchowk village warning residents against supporting the Pratirodh Committee, the police said.

“When they spotted Paritosh Das, a 22-year-old Pratirodh Committee supporter, they caught him and began beating him up. As the news spread, about 500 Pratirodh Committee supporters from neighbouring Keyakhali rushed in with lathis. On seeing the mob, the CPM men turned back towards Satengabari,” an officer of Nandigram police station said.

To reach Satengabari, the CPM activists had to cross Keyakhali, where Pratirodh Committee supporters rushed to cut them off.

“Some of the CPM activists then whipped out revolvers and pipe guns and began shooting as they made a dash towards Satengabari. Two bullets hit Debashis Mondal and he slumped to the ground,” the officer said. He was taken to the Nandigram block hospital from where he was referred to Calcutta’s SSKM Hospital.

The Pratirodh Committee has called a 24-hour bandh in Nandigram tomorrow in protest against the incident.

Trouble had begun brewing in the land war zone since February 19, when two CRPF camps at Khodambari High School had to be wound up as the jawans were shifted to Orissa to fight Maoists.