Supporters of the 24-hour nationwide strike today fought a pitched battle with the police at Sujapur Naimouza under the Kaliachak police station in Malda today. Seven vehicles, including five belonging to the police, were allegedly torched by the bandh supporters, while police charged them with batons, and fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets to quell the mob. Police also detained 10 persons, though they said no arrests have been made so far.

Five policemen were also injured when stones hurled by the protesters hit them, it is learnt. “The police have started a probe into the matter, while movement of the vehicles has started on the highway,” sources said. Congress, the party that called the strike along with the Left, said police also vandalised parked vehicles “to frame our supporters in false cases.” A video clip that went viral on social media showed police ransacking parked vehicles at the site of the clash.

According to sources, people in large numbers gathered at Sujapur Naimouza in the morning to block National Highway-34 in support of the strike, while they torched Union Home Minister Amit Shah in effigy. A huge contingent of police reached the spot, but tension started soon after the police started clearing the highway. “Thousands of stones started to fall on the police and vehicles parked on the Naimouza Maidan, while cars, including that of the Additional Superintendent of police, the Deputy Superintendent of Police, and the Inspector-in-charge of the Kaliachak police station, were torched.

The police countered the attack and charged batons and fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets,” sources said. Sub-inspector Amar Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Surajit Das and three civic volunteers were injured. “We are sure that there was involvement of outsiders in the incident, while police vandalised their own vehicles to trap the agitators,” Sujapur MLA and Congress leader Isha Khan Choudhury claimed. Mostaque Alam, the district president of the Congress, also alleged conspiracy against the party in the Sujapur incident.

The district secretary of the CPIM, Ambar Mitra, claimed the strike was successful in the district and said, “TMC is losing ground in Sujapur and the police provoked the people so as to trap them in false cases.” The working president of the Trinamul Congress in Malda, Dulal Sarkar, however, said that the people in general turned down the strike and that the CPIM and the Congress spread violence because of that. Superintendent of Police Alok Rajoria said the police were in search of the supporters who vandalised the vehicles and attacked the police.