Kolkata: Although the polling of the three-tier panchayat system in West Bengal has ended, violence continued and two more deaths have been reported, officials said Sunday.
Both casualties happened late Saturday night in South 24 Parganas district.
The first case of casualty was reported from Kultali in South 24 Parganas, where a Trinamool Congress worker, Abu Salem Khan, was lynched by unknown miscreants. His head was totally smashed.
Local people said that the area was under tension since the end of the polls Saturday evening with sporadic clashes continuing. Tension mounted as time passed and finally on late night Khan died in the continuing clashes.
Similarly, another Trinamool Congress activist Azhar Lashkar, who was injured Saturday evening following poll-related clashes at Basanti also in South 24 Parganas district and shifted to a hospital in Kolkata, died early Sunday morning.
Trinamool Congress MLA from Basanti Shyamal Mondal has claimed that Lashkar was severely injured in an attack by the activists of Left Front ally Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP). However, the local RSP leadership claimed that Lashkar was injured in public resistance after he and his associates tried to capture a booth.
With these two fresh reports of casualties, the total death count since the beginning of the polling since Saturday morning has risen to 17.
The maximum number of deaths has been recorded from Murshidabad district at five, followed by three in South 24 Parganas, two each from Cooch Behar, East Burdwan, Malda and North Dinajpur districts and one from Nadia district.
With this total death count since the announcement of polling dates June 8 rises to 36, with 19 recorded till Friday night and 17 added since Saturday morning.
IANS
