Central forces patrol Sujapur on Tuesday and (below) Kairul Islam being beaten up in Rathbari. Pictures by Surajit Roy

Malda, April 28: CPM leader Haji Ketabuddin was attacked with bullets and bombs in Sujapur’s Chamagram last night. A retaliatory fire by his security guard forced the criminals to flee.

A notorious criminal of the locality, Sohurul Sheikh, was among the three persons arrested.

Even though Ketabuddin, the secretary of the Sujapur local committee, escaped unhurt, his car was riddled with bullets, none of which were found. Police, however, said the cartridges had revealed that the shots were fired from a pipegun. Tension mounted in the area, 17km from here, this morning after the news of the attack spread. Central forces staged a route march to ward off further trouble. The armed district police also patrolled the sensitive areas of the locality.

Around 15 people had surrounded Ketabuddin’s car while he was returning home at 11pm yesterday after campaigning for Abdur Razzak, who is the CPM candidate for South Malda.

The nerve-wracking sound of gunfire and bombs attracted villagers who immediately came out of their houses. The police from Sujapur outpost reached the spot 15 minutes later. While three person were arrested, the rest escaped under the cover of darkness.

According to the police, Sohurul and his men had hatched a plot to murder the CPM leader. Since from January this year Ketabuddin has been attacked thrice, the district police have provided him with security.

“The Congress is trying to spread panic among the villagers prior to the elections by creating law and order problems. Had the personal security of Ketabuddin not opened fire, the Congress-backed criminals would have killed him,” the district secretary of the CPM, Jiban Moitra, said.

Moitra claimed that Ketabuddin wielded much influence in Sujapur and is a very popular leader. It will be a “gain” for the Congress if he is eliminated before the elections, he argued. The CPM had fielded Ketabuddin against Mausam Noor in the Sujapur bypolls early this year. The seat had fallen vacant with the death of Mausam’s mother, the sitting MLA Ruby Noor. Mausam won the bypolls defeating Ketabuddin by 20,000 votes. For the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has fielded Mausam from the newly created Malda North constituency.

District president of the Congress Abu Hashem Khan Chowdhury has denied that his party was involved in last night’s attack. Sujapur is part of Malda South constituency where the Congress candidate is Khan Chowdhury.

“Sohurul does not belong to our party. The CPM has been levelling such allegations to malign us,” said Khan Chowdhury, the sitting MP.

Ketabuddin said other than him, zonal committee leader of the CPM Mosaraf Hussain, his personal security guard and the driver were in the car.

None of the occupants of the car had come out during the attack. The security guard had fired from the window of the vehicle. Seeing the villagers the gang dispersed.

The superintendent of police of Malda, Satyajit Bandyopadhyay said the police reached the spot on time and gave the criminals a chase.

“We shall strengthen the security of the CPM leader. We are looking for other members of the gang and trying to find out what had provoked the attack on him. The gang had used pipeguns,” the district police chief said.

‘Accidental’ firing

A constable of the Assam Police on election duty was beaten up by a mob in Rathbari after his assault rifle went off, reportedly by accident.

The constable, Kairul Islam, and five others, including an officer, were on his way to Chanchol.

Witnesses, however, said Islam was drunk and had fired indiscriminately in the air on the busy NH34 at 7.45pm. Madhumoy Sarkar and Avijit Pathak had helped overpower the constable.

“When we saw him firing indiscriminately, we sneaked up from behind and held him tightly. He smelt of alcohol. The crowd then snatched him from us and started beating him up,” Pathak said.

The other Assam police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police N. Chowdhury, informed a police outpost nearby. A large force came and lathicharged the crowd to rescue Islam.

Malda police superintendent, Satyajit Banerjee said the allegation of drunkenness was being probed. Chowdhury, however, said the rifle had gone off accidentally and no one was injured. “Five rounds got discharged from the rifle accidentally. The charge that the constable was drunk is not true,” he said.