Just when the Nandigram fires have begun to smoulder down, the CPM-led government in West Bengal is caught in another political headache: its partner Forward Bloc, testy for long, is now up in arms after at least five of its supporters were killed in police firing when they were protesting against the state government’s failure to implement the job guarantee scheme and to give enough jobs to Muslims.

The incident happened outside the office of the Sub-divisional officer, Dinhata, in Coochbehar district this afternoon. This was a statewide protest but the maximum turnout was in Dinhata — a traditional bastion of the Forward Bloc — where a mob of about 12,000 gathered outside the SDO’s office.

Police claimed that the protestors attacked them with bamboo staves and they had to open fire in self-defence at close quarters. One police inspector and a constable were seriously injured.

Shortly after news of the police firing reached the Forward Bloc’s state headquarters in Kolkata, the party called a 24-hour statewide bandh. The bandh, the first-ever to be called by one Front partner against the CPM, is expected to disrupt life as it has the support of almost all Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, the Congress, SUCI and even Front partners like the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).

Nearly 50 people were injured in a police lathicharge and teargas. When the police failed to contain the rampaging mob, they resorted to firing killing four on the spot. Another supporter died in hospital later in the night. The fresh flare-up and the killings in police firing added fuel to a already charged political environment in which the two Front constituents have found themselves locked for quite some time now.

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