Tension in Bengal's Canning over murder of 3 Trinamool workers

Tension is brewing in Canning, a part of the coastal belt in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal following the murder of three influential local Trinamool Congress workers in broad daylight on Thursday morning.

While local Trinamool Congress leaders have blamed BJP for the murder, circumstantial evidence behind the murder is pointing towards infighting within the ruling party.

The three killed, namely a local panchayat member, Swapan Majhi (38) and local Trinamool Congress booth presidents, Bhutnath Pramanik (33) and Jhantu Halder (33) on Thursday morning while they were going to attend a preparatory meeting on the forthcoming Trinamool Congress's annual Martyr's Day programme on July 21. While they were going to the meeting venue riding on two motorcycles, they were stopped by the assassins who first hacked the three and then fired multiple bullets.

Superintendent of Baruipur District Police, Pushpa Rani told media persons that investigations are on to ascertain the reasons behind the murder as well as to nab the assassins.

However, local police source said that it is evident that the killers had definite information about the time when the three victims will pass through the place of crime and hence, they were waiting right there for them. From this point the infighting motive becomes stronger.

At the same time, the statements given by a local Trinamool Congress MLA from Canning (West) assembly constituency, Paresh Ram Das to the police as well as to the media have picked holes on the infighting theory. "The three victims had the fear of being killed for quite some time. They came to meet me at my party office on Tuesday evening and expressed this apprehension. I assured them of making arrangements for their security. However, I could never imagine that their apprehensions would come true so early," he said.

Now, questions are being raised on why security arrangements were not made for them despite the fact that the local MLA was aware of life threats.

Trinamool Congress MLA from adjacent Canning (East) assembly constituency, Saokat Molla said that in all probability this murder was a handiwork of the BJP. "They do not have any organization base in the area and hence they are trying to unite some local anti-social elements to have control over the area," he said.

The BJP leadership have, however, rubbished the allegations and said that this murder was the result of tensions between two groups, one having affiliation to Molla and the other to Das.