2 deaths, 1 question: Who fired the bullets?

A LABOURER and an MA student, neither of them protesters, shot dead by bullets that no one wishes to claim. These are the two deaths around which all of Bhangar’s anger now revolves.

The main road that cuts across the village is littered with tear gas shells, discarded police uniforms, shattered window panes and a patch of dried blood. The question on everyone’s mind — who shot the two?

Mofijul Khan, a farmer who also worked as a labourer, was his family’s sole breadwinner. With the youngest of his three sons still too young to understand anything, his wife, Sabera Bibi, said: “He wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was just going to find work as a labourer, like he always does. Those goons from the Trinamool Congress are responsible for this. First, they took away our land and now, they took away my husband. What will happen to these children now?”

Mofijul, like many others, felt strongly about the land acqusition, but stayed away from politics. On Tuesday, as violence broke out, Mofijul was on his way to find work. “They (police) left their uniforms and ran. I don’t know if it was the police who took off their uniform and then shot at people. Or if others dressed up as policemen shot at people,” said Sabera Bibi.

About four kilometres from their house, Alam Mollah’s family grieves too. Like others in the area, the 25-year-old worked in the farms and helped out at home by doing odd jobs. But unlike others, he was a promising student. “He was doing his MA in Bangla from a private college in Madhyamgram. On his day offs, he would learn to repair ACS and fridges at a shop near Rajarhat,” said Kedab Ali Haji, his father

He said Mollah had gone to the protest site on hearing that a mosque had been attacked. “He went and they shot him. I don’t know who shot him,” he said.