Bomb Thrown At Police Team at a Village in West Bengal

Birbhum: A police officer was wounded when he and his team were attacked with bombs, bricks and sticks at a village in West Bengal's Birbhum district today. The police team had gone to the village this afternoon on a tip off that bombs were being made or stocked in the village.

The tip off did hold true at Sottor village where the police found at least 200 bombs stored in 14 drums at a disused health centre. But when they went to the adjoining Chowmandal village to search a poultry farm, they were attacked by the villagers.

The OC (officer in charge) of the Parui police station, Prasenjit Dutta, and two more policemen were injured in the mob attack. The OC has been admitted to a hospital at district headquarter Siuri with splinter injuries.

A large police force rushed to the area and raided several houses in Chowmandal but did not find any bombs. 14 people have been detained for the attack on the police.

The political affiliation of those detained is not known but the incident has acquired political overtones. The CPM and the BJP are blaming the ruling Trinamool Congress of stashing the bombs. The Trinamool in turn is blaming it on the BJP.

The CPM and the BJP are pointing to a public statement by TMC's Birbhum district chief Anubrata Mondal urging his supporters to "bomb the police". Trinamool sources, however, claim that the BJP was trying to "capture" some villages in Birbhum and were stocking bombs for the turf war.

BJP's Rahul Sinha said, "The Trinamool is passing the buck. They attacked the police and are blaming us. But it is they who have been terrorising BJP supporters in the districts."

Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee issued a statement saying, "BJP is quick to rush to conclusions and preaching from Delhi. Birbhum incident is being investigated. Law will take its own course. Culprits will not be spared."

Trinamool's Anubrata Mondal has said, "Asking people to bomb the police was the biggest mistake of my life."