West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday ordered the arrest of former Trinamool Congress leader Arabul Islam after the supporter of an independent candidate in the state’s panchayat elections was shot dead in Bhangar in the state’s state’s South 24 Parganas district, The Telegraph reported.
“I have asked the police to arrest Arabul immediately, he has done something wrong,” Banerjee told reporters moments after 25-year-old Hafizul Molla was shot dead while walking in a procession. Islam, who used to represent Bhangar in the Assembly, was arrested late at night from a paddy field behind his home.
Most of the independent candidates in the fray for the elections are members of the Save the Land Committee, an anti-land acquisition outfit opposed to the setting up of a power grid unit at Bhangar, PTI reported. Their supporters held a procession in protest against an alleged attack by Arabul’s men on one of the candidates’s homes.
Islam is the chairman of the Bhangar II panchayat samiti and is contesting against an independent candidate in the May 14 elections. The Save the Land Committee accused Islam’s men of unleashing violence to ensure his victory in the election. “Today, one of our supporters was killed by Trinamool,” the organisation’s secretary Mirza Hassan told The Telegraph. “This is a pointer to how the ruling party led by Arabul Islam in Bhangar is engaging in violence.”
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