Clashes erupt in Malda village after youth’s murder
The Statesman | 24 April 2025
A stretch of Amriti village under English Bazar police station in Malda turned into a virtual battlefield on Wednesday afternoon after clashes broke out between police and villagers protesting the murder of a local youth.
Angry over the killing of 22-year-old Shibu Mondal in nearby Sikanderpur late Tuesday night, villagers blocked the Malda–Manikchak State Highway early Wednesday, accusing police of failing to prevent rising crime in the area. Shibu, along with two others, was on night patrol—an initiative taken up by locals due to repeated thefts and robberies—when they were allegedly attacked by miscreants with sharp weapons. Shibu died, while the other two were seriously injured.
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Tension escalated when police tried to lift the blockade around noon. What followed was a fierce face-off between the two sides. As protesters pelted stones and wielded sticks, police responded with a lathi charge and fired multiple rounds of tear gas to disperse the mob. The situation was brought under control only after heavy reinforcements were deployed. Malda’s additional superintendent of police, Sambhab Jain, reached the spot to oversee operations.
“We assessed possible measures to restore calm in the area,” said Mr Jain.
Villagers, particularly women, expressed deep resentment toward the police, alleging total inaction despite repeated complaints. “For over a month, we’ve faced nightly thefts and burglaries. We had no choice but to guard our villages ourselves,” said one protestor. Seven villages in the area have reportedly been affected by similar incidents.
In a separate incident, a massive cache of crude bombs was recovered from the Ghuntola area of Shahbazpur, under Golapganj Outpost of Kaliachak police station. Acting on a tip-off, police discovered five containers hidden in bushes near a pond, containing 77 live crude bombs. The CID bomb squad later defused them in a controlled explosion, triggering panic across the region. Police are still trying to determine who stored the explosives and why.
Meanwhile, further tension gripped Malda’s Kaliachak area when the bloodied body of a youth was found around 1.5 kilometres from his home in Naoda Binpara. The victim, identified as Shubhankar Ghosh, a Class XII student from Milik Sultanpur Sailapur, had been missing since Tuesday night. He was found dead with grievous injuries to his chest, suspected to be from a gunshot.
Police have launched parallel investigations into all three incidents, but no arrests had been made at the time of filing this report.