Gram panchayat member killed

Kolkata: In yet another instance of faction feud within the Trinamul Congress, a gram panchayat member was hacked to death allegedly by two ruling party workers near his home at Amta in Howrah on Tuesday night. The victim, Sheikh Hannan Ali, was a resident of Paschimpara in Basantapur.

He was a member of Basantapur gram panchayat. The incident took place at around 11 pm when Ali was returning home on his motorcycle. Two Trinamul workers — Sheikh Hasan and Idris Ali — blocked his way and attacked him with a dagger. When Ali started screaming for help, the accused fled.

Ali died on the spot. Later, a police team arrived to take away the body, but angry villagers demonstrated and refused to hand over the body. A rapid action force, led by sub division officer (Uluberia), rushed to the spot to prevent violence. The body was recovered by the police and was later sent for a post-mortem.

Ali’s mother, Noorjahan Begum, alleged that her son was working well in the gram panchayat and he was supposed to get a ticket for the Trinamul again next time, which Hasan and Idris were jealous of. The police has detained six villagers for questioning. But the two accused are absconding with their family members.