Kolkata, May 9 (Inditop) Nine people, including a toddler and a teenager, were killed and several wounded as Left activists fought pitched battles with opposition supporters using bombs, firearms and sharp weapons in several districts of West Bengal in spiralling post-poll violence.
The fighting erupted after Thursday’s polling between activists of the ruling Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and opposition Trinamool Congress and Congress. Hundreds of houses were either set ablaze or damaged in the fighting.
The fighting was reported in Howrah, Burdwan, East Midnapore and Murshidabad districts. All the troubled areas went to vote for the second phase of polls in the state May 7.
Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency in Howrah saw four deaths, two were killed in volatile Nandigram under Tamluk seat in East Mindapore and three died at Asansol in Burdwan, police said.
Police sources said a 50-year-old man was killed in a bomb attack Saturday at Udaynarayanpur. The CPI-M MP from Uluberia Hannan Mollah claimed the victim was their party supporter.
A 15-year-old high school student, the son of a CPI-M leader, was killed at Bagnan in Howrah Friday when miscreants hurled bombs at the rooftop where he was standing with other family members. Another villager was killed from bomb splinter injuries in the same area.
A youth, whom the CPI-M claimed was their activist, was shot dead outside a polling booth at Chandrapur in Howrah soon after the May 7 polls.
At Simlan village of Burdwan, CPI-M and Trinamool supporters engaged in violent clashes leading to the death of two Trinamool supporters Friday. A CPI-M supporter was killed in the same district Thursday.
In Nandigram, the two-year old girl and her father – a Trinamool Congress supporter – died in a bomb attack Thursday night, East Midnapore district police superintendent Pall Kanti Ghosh said.
In Noadapara in Murshidabad, 10 people were injured as CPI-M and Congress activists fought in the fields and small village alleys.
Several children suffered splinter injuries, lost consciousness or were injured as bombs were rained at each other by rival party activists in these four districts.