Police enter Bhangar after nine days

With normalcy restored in Bhangar, police were allowed to enter the villages to ensure peace on Wednesday after nine days of unrest with villagers withdrawing the roadblocks.

Residents of Shyamnagar and Swarupnagar village had paved the way for restoring peace in Bhangar. The villagers of the two villages had removed tree trunks, concrete slabs and bricks from Haroa Road allowing vehicles to ply on Tuesday. The police had also entered those villages after Sabysachi Dutta, New Town MLA and Mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, held a peace rally in the area.

On Wednesday, police had managed to enter villages including Khamarait, Machibhanga, Natunhaat and Tona. A large contingent of policemen was pressed to the villages in two teams. There were women police as well.

There was some trouble in Machbhanga village where a portion of a road was damaged to stop police from entering the village. Bombs were also pelted on Tuesday night. But the situation improved on Wednesday morning with villagers repairing the damaged portion of the road and raising their voice in demand of peace in the area.

Vehicles started plying on all the roads in the villages and schools were also opened. Children, though comparatively less in number, were found going to schools. Shops were also opened.

The police were found announcing using a public addressing system to urge people to maintain peace in the area and not to create any trouble after being instigated by outsiders.

It may be mentioned that the mass agitation in Bhangar against setting up of the power grid substation was backed by CPIML (Red Star). But the people have realised their mistake as they had revolted listening to the members of the Naxalite group. Thus, they are now in favour of restoring peace in the area and they also want setting up of the power grid substation. Interestingly, another section of members of the group are now trying to bring villagers together against the state government over petty local issues.

Besides instigation of the outsiders, names of some political leaders and workers had also cropped up in the Bhangar issue. According to intelligence inputs, in an attempt to get contract to supply building materials for the power grid substation, had also been a factor for the repeated clashes in Bhangar. Moreover, some land mafias had also funded the movement as they had planned to grab the plot of the power grid station if its construction didn't complete, sources said.

The tension broke out at Bhangar on January 17 over setting up of a power grid substation and clashes resulted in the deaths of two persons.

Meanwhile, Sukur Ali Khan, father of one of the victims Mafijul Khan, moved to the Calcutta High Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the death of his son.