In restive Bengal village, an outpouring of anger, grief

Anger was still palpable in Sandeshkhali on Tuesday, five days after violent protests, led mostly by local women, broke out in the village to demand the arrest of a Trinamool Congress strongman Sheikh Shajahan and his aides.

- Joydeep Thakur

With sticks and brooms in their hands, the protesters fanned out across Sandeshkhali, a block with several villages nestled between lakes and marshes of the lower Ganga wetlands. By the afternoon, Sheikh's aide Shiba Prasad Hazra's house was vandalised and a poultry farm belonging to him was set ablaze. In the days since, more properties linked to Hazra, and another aide of Sheikh, Uttam Sardar, were targeted.

Among the protesters was a 55-year-old woman, who sat in the courtyard of her home overlooking the farm. "I used to work in that poultry farm. It belongs to Shiba Prasad Hazra. I worked there for five months. I was offered ₹6,000 for a month without any holiday. But they paid me only for three months. When I asked Bacchu Mondol, Hazra's close aide, to clear the dues they threatened to harm my family," she said.

With no staff left, several birds at the farm have since died, while villagers have rescued the rest.