On a whirlwind tour of violence-torn areas in Nandigram, senior BJP leader L K Advani on Tuesday met fear-struck villagers, desolate houses and a disconsolate boy whose father was killed and later said he had never seen this kind of terror in his long political career.
Addressing a rally after visiting a school which shelters those rendered homeless by violence, Advani accused the Left Front government in West Bengal and the UPA dispensation at the Centre of being responsible for the violence in Nandigram.
He also charged the Centre with inaction and indifference to violence because it depended on the support of CPI(M).
Recalling his previous visit to Nandigram after the March 14 police firing and violence which left 14 people dead, Advani, leading an NDA delegation, said the police had fired then, but "this time it was CPI-M goons who fired on the people".
"The people had been forthcoming then, but now an atmosphere of terror prevails here. In my long political career, I have never come across this kind of terror," he said.
Advani, accompanied by party colleague Sushma Swaraj and other members of the delegation, visited Adhikaripara which had witnessed violence and met refugees at Nandigram school.
Most houses were deserted and not many people were seen on the roads when the NDA team went there traveling through Amgachi, Gokulnagar, Samsabad and Mahespur villages.
The senior BJP leader said a boy told him that his mother was killed in front of him. "Ten women said that their husbands remained untraced. We will take up these issues with the governor during our meeting with him in the evening," he said.
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