After the violence in Birbhum, a large number of people have fled the Rampurhat town. There is an atmosphere of tension after the violence and there is silence on the streets. Violence erupted after the killing of TMC leader Bhadu Sheikh. After this, many houses were set on fire, in which 8 people died. Now this town has turned into a kind of ‘ghost village’.
Kalu Shaikh, who lives in the west of the village, said, all the dead were women and at least two were children. There was devastation in the village around 10 pm on Monday. After this, 23 people have been arrested on Wednesday. Please tell that there are five villages under Barshal Panchayat. There have been many incidents of violence in these villages in the last 10 years.
Shaikh said that seven bodies were retrieved from Fatiq Sheikh’s house. Behind Sheikh’s house, some chickens are seen feeding. A calf is tied in front of the house but the surrounding houses are locked. Some people were also saying that Fatik Shaikh’s body was found from the paddy fields, although the police said that this is a pure rumour.
Sanju Sheikh’s house is on the side of the village road. After the incident of arson, three people were also evacuated from Sanju Sheikh’s house in injured condition. One of them died in the hospital. Police had not revealed the identities of the victims till Wednesday.
Kajal Sheikh, a resident of Paschimpara, said, “You might be surprised but the enmity started 10 years ago between the families of Bhadu Sheikh, Fatik Sheikh and Sanju Sheikh. Once there was a fight between them over the matter of grazing goats in the field. In these 10 years, about 10 people have died. Bhadu’s elder brother Babar was shot dead in January last year.
Kajal Sheikh said, the main issue of quarrel is that Sanju Sheikh and Fatik Sheikh are not residents of Bogtui. They were residents of Morgram village, which is 50 km from Rampurhat. He started living here after marrying a local woman. Sanju’s father Sona Sheikh had come here 22 years ago. After this, one by one his family started settling here. The people of the village say that these people are infiltrators who came from outside and started occupying the village. There was a dispute among them regarding the land also.