Harish Barman

Cooch Behar, Dec. 5: The CPM MLA from Sitalkuchi and several Left Front leaders were beaten up by alleged Trinamul Congress supporters this afternoon after elections to a school committee in Harish Barman’s constituency.

Police burst tear-gas shells and resorted to a lathi-charge to disperse the mob as CPM and Forward Bloc leaders sat on a dharna in front of Sitalkuchi police station demanding the arrest of Trinamul leader Abid Ali Miyan, accused of orchestrating the attack.

This is not the first time that a CPM leader faced Trinamul heat in Mathabhanga subdivision. On September 23, former CPM minister Dinesh Dakua had a narrow escape, after a party office in Sarkarerhat, 10km from Sitalkuchi, came under attack from Trinamul supporters. In a series of clashes in nearby Mathabhanga a day later, nearly 50 persons were injured, including some prominent Left leaders, while trying to enforce a bandh in the area to protest the attack on Dakua.

Today, the elections to the managing committee of Gopinath High School in Sitalkuchi, 70km from here, that began at 9 am.

Barman said he had been sitting inside the Bloc office, close to the school and almost adjacent to the police station, when the attack took place. “When Trinamul realised they were losing the elections, they attacked the party office. A mob of over a hundred hoodlums had lathis and spears with which they beat me up. My two security guards were injured while trying to protect me and Bloc leader Atiar Rehman,” MLA Barman said.

Rehman claimed at least 25 Left Front members were injured. Eight people, Rehman said, were admitted to the Sitalkuchi block hospital.

Barman said he was surprised at the role of police, who could not prevent the attack on him and the party office.

The additional police superintendent of the district, Amit P. Javalgi, said his force had to burst three rounds of tear-gas shells to quell the violence. The police confirmed that some people had to be hospitalised but could not confirm the number.

The president of the Cooch Behar Trinamul, Rabindranath Ghosh, said: “Harish Barman and his men are indulging in nothing but drama.”