Troops deployed to quell Calcutta riots

Posted 11 22 2007 1:12AM

CALCUTTA, India - Dozens of soldiers marched through the city and police imposed a curfew Wednesday to try to quell riots that erupted after protesters alleged government brutality, officials and witnesses said.

Riot police used batons and tear gas earlier in the day to disperse hundreds of protesters who hurled rocks and bottles at the officers, and torched several vehicles and two offices of the West Bengal state's ruling Communist Party.

Some 300 soldiers were available to restore law and order, Prasad Ranjan Roy, West Bengal's home secretary, told reporters after an emergency meeting.

Later, Police Commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakraborty said an overnight curfew would be imposed on central Calcutta.

Nearly 200 members of the group were arrested during the protest, and police said they were likely to be freed later Wednesday. Scores of protesters and policemen were injured in the clashes, Aaj Tak television news channel reported.

The protesters accuse Communist Party-backed gangs of killing villagers leading a campaign against the state government.

The state has been in turmoil since the government announced plans last year to build a special economic zone, including a shipyard and a petrochemical plant, on 22,000 acres of farm land in Nandigram district.

Violent protests by farmers, who felt they were being forced to sell their land at cheap rates, eventually led to the plan being canceled in March and state police withdrew from the area.

But violence has persisted and demonstrators on Wednesday accused the Communist Party of using gangs to try and seize back the district and of killing members of the local farmers' Land Acquisition Resistance Committee who had opposed them.

The Communist Party has denied any involvement, saying they have no connection to these gangs.

At least 34 people have died in clashes in Nandigram, including six people killed in fighting earlier this month.