Mamata pays homage to Nanoor victims

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday paid her tribute to all those who had died due to political violence at Nanoor in Birbhum.

"Today is Nanoor Dibas. Innocent agricultural labourers were brutally martyred on this day in 2000. My homage to all those who lost their lives due to political violence," Banerjee tweeted. It was on July 27, 2000 when political violence broke out in Soochpur village of Nanoor block in Birbhum district over the right to cultivate a four-bigha plot. Eleven farm workers lost their lives.

In 2010, Mamata Banerjee, who was the then Railway Minister, took up the cause of bringing justice for the massacre and 44 accused were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. It was the first time when so many people were given punishment in a single case in Bengal.

State Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim on Saturday attended a rally at Nanoor where he came down heavily on the erstwhile CPI(M) government for the killings.

"The workers in Nanoor were killed simply because they raised their voice against the CPI(M). The people have rejected you and so they have voted the Trinamool party to power with such a huge mandate in 2011," Hakim said. The TMC government has built a martyrs' memorial in memory of those killed at Bashpada bus stand in Nanoor. The incident is considered one of the foremost political disturbances of recent times in Bengal.