Bengal rural polls: 3 killed in ISF, police clash

Three persons, including two supporters of the Indian Secular Front (ISF), were killed and several policemen injured in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district as a clash broke out outside a centre where counting of votes for rural polls was going on, police said on Wednesday.

The two deceased ISF supporters were identified as Rezaul Gazi and Hasan Mollah, while the other person was Raju Mollah, a senior officer said.

The incident occurred late Tuesday night when members of the ISF allegedly hurled bombs outside the counting centre at Bhangore, around 30 km from Kolkata, and police restored to baton charge, he said.

Police personnel fired a few rounds of rubber bullets and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the mob, the officer said.

"A senior IPS officer, his bodyguard and several other policemen as well as a few alleged members of the ISF were injured in the clash," he told PTI.

A few people have been detained from the spot for their alleged involvement in the incident, the officer said.

"Around midnight, some people started a commotion outside the counting centre at Bhangore. They hurled bombs, aiming at our colleagues. In retaliation and to maintain law and order, our officers had baton charged. The police personnel had to fire a few rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets after the situation started deteriorating," he said.

The injured policemen and several ISF supporters are undergoing treatment at a hospital, the officer said.

A huge team of police personnel has been deployed at Bhangore, particularly outside the counting centre.

Crude bombs were found in several localities of Bhangore on Wednesday morning and a team of bomb squad reached there, the policeman said.

Shops and marketplaces remained shut as locals have chosen to stay indoors.

Bhangore has been on the boil since June 8 when the rural polls were announced by the state election commission.

Governor Dr C V Ananda Bose had visited violence-hit Bhangore twice and spoken to the family members of a person who was killed in a poll-related clash there and also to the injured people.

Bose had gone to the area on Tuesday, soon after returning from New Delhi, primarily to understand the situation there in the context of poll counting.

The ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday is set for a landslide victory in violence-scarred rural polls in West Bengal as the overnight count of ballots gave it an unassailable lead in results declared till now by the state election commission.

The violence, which rocked the panchayat elections held on July 8, has claimed at least 15 lives on the polling day with 11 of them from the ruling TMC.

Since the elections were announced last month, the number of people who died in poll-related incidents was 33.