Villagers said the police entered the village five hours after the clash.
Barely 24 hours after a clash at Makda village - between the cadres of the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP - claimed three lives, the police were nowhere to be seen in the area. The only team stationed kept a safe distance - four km from the village boundaries. Asked why they weren't inside the village to maintain law and order, they speedily decamped.
Attempts to reach Birbhum Superintendent of Police Alok Rajouli were unsuccessful. His phone went unanswered.
At the Makda village, there were conflicting details about how the three men died. The one thing everyone could agree on was an ongoing fight for dominance between the Trinamool and the increasingly active BJP, which is capturing the political space in villages such as this. (Read:
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And the police, they agreed, were of no help at all.
By all accounts, Monday's clash had raged uncontrolled. Sabina, daughter of Muzammil Ali, a 40-year-old TMC worker who died, said, "My father was being assaulted, but the cops just stayed outside the village and kept on eating rice flakes."
The police finally entered the village five hours after the incident, added another villager.
At the home of 20-year-old BJP worker Sheikh Tausif Ali, who too, was killed in yesterday's violence, grieving relatives said the attack had been orchestrated by the Trinamool.
"The Trinamool people were threatening him for long, demanding that he stay away from the BJP," said Papiya Bua, Tausif's relative.(Read:
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Just 200 metres away, at the home of slain TMC worker Muzammil Ali, the story was slightly different.
People agreed that the Trinamool was indeed trying to recapture the political space. But they maintained the party was holding a peaceful rally, when the BJP started the violence.