Kolkata: Bullets, bombs in campus clash; five injured

KOLKATA: Bombs and bullets flew outside the college gate at Rishi Bankim Chandra College in Naihati on Wednesday when supporters of rival student organisations ABVP and Trinamool Chhatra Parishad clashed among themselves leaving five injured.
A large police force from Barrackpore Commissionerate struggled for at least an hour to tackle the armed mobs. Police had to lathi-charge to bring the situation under control.The commissionerate has put up a police picket in front of the college compound. “We are conducting raids in the area,” said Ajay Thakur, DCP( Zone I) of the Barrackpore Commissionerate.
Trouble started in the college common room in the afternoon while four ABVP members were talking to students to gain a foothold in the college. TMCP supporters soon barged into the room to drive them out on the ground that the students’ union belonged to them. The altercation led to a clash with the violence spilling onto the streets. Both the students’ organisations had mobilised supporters outside the college gate by then.
Principal Sanjib Saha said: “I was in the college office room then. I could hear sound of bombs, but couldn’t ascertain from where it was coming. Later, I received that bombs and bullets were used. I have asked police to take appropriate steps,” the college principal said.
Saha didn’t name the rival organisations whose supporters clashed inside and outside the college. “Two groups of students clashed among themselves. This has emerged as a problem in many colleges in Bengal. Students are bearing the brunt. Some are in power and others are desperate to supplant them,” he said.
The college in Naihati comes under the Barrackpore parliament constituency that witnessed a change in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with BJP’s Arjun Singh defeating Trinamool’s Dinesh Tiwari. The change triggered violence in the adjoining areas with supporters of the two parties trying to hasten the change in civic bodies and also in colleges.
ABVP leader and BA third-year student Deep Sikdar said: “It was a pre-meditated attack. TMCP toughs have been targeting us for a couple of weeks.” BA second-year student and TMCP leader Joyitee Biswas instead accused ABVP of mobilising criminals from Bhatpara, Naihati and Kankinara. “All the goons belonged to BJP,” she said.