12 die in India mob violence

15/03/2007| IslamWeb

Police opened fire yesterday on a mob protesting the planned building of a Special Economic Zone in eastern India, killing 12 and injuring more than 50. "We are keeping a watch on developments and the situation is under control," Raj Kanojia, police chief of eastern West Bengal state said. The violence was the latest in a series of nationwide protests, mainly by poor villagers, against the government buying up farmland for private industrial parks. The parks are seen as central to India's drive to boost economic growth and lure foreign investment.

Kanojia said the clashes erupted when residents of Nandigram village - about 120km south of the state capital Kolkata - attacked police with sickles and sharp objects.

"The police had to resort to firing," he said.

Police said they had gone to the village to provide protection to workers who were seeking to repair roads and bridges destroyed by the villagers in an effort to block access to the village.

All those killed yesterday were farmers, bringing the death toll in Nandigram since violence first erupted there to 13.

Most of the economic zones, including the one that was to be set up in Nandigram, are to be built on farmland. The violence in recent months has sparked a national debate over whether farms should be razed for factories in this country where about two-thirds of the more than one billion people live off agriculture. The zones are privately-run enclaves with world-class infrastructure and tax breaks.

State opposition parties, including the Congress Party - which leads the ruling coalition at the national level - have called for a statewide strike tomorrow to protest the police action.

West Bengal's Marxist administration has announced plans to buy 14,500 acres of land for Indonesia's Salim group to set up a chemical hub in Nandigram under an agreement clinched last July.

PHOTO CAPTION

Supporters of India's Trinamool Congress party gather to block a street crossing in Kolkata as they protest against police firing upon demonstrators in Nandigram, a village some 120 Kms south of Kolkata. (AFP)