The raid by a squad of 100 motorcycle-borne men on Monday night left a trail of devastation at Bogtui whose notoriety as the hotbed of crimes reached a nadir with the massacre of eight persons.
When this newspaper surveyed Bogtui on Wednesday morning, the area looked more like a movie set than a real-life crime scene.
Locked-up mud huts with their lights still on, smouldering haystacks, bitumen marks left by screeching two-wheelers and police pickets made up the scene. There were senior police officers and 50-odd vehicles which brought them. Most local residents were nowhere to be seen, with most reportedly having taken shelter at relatives’ homes in nearby villages.
“This is the scene of an exodus,” said one woman crouched by a well, her face veiled by the sari. She arrived on Wednesday morning to clear her remaining belongings from her home. The look in her eyes spoke of distrust, as she glanced at a nearby police picket before walking away.
She retreated to a group of nine women, who had come in for strength in numbers. They were the only local residents of the area in sight.
When this reporter crossed paths with her again, her companions were heard conversing among each other.
“The stench is unbearable,” one of them said, also lifting up her sari to the nose. Their purpose, after all, was not subterfuge. Most of them had large cloth bags or metal trolleys in tow. Their intention to leave forever was more or less clear.
Selina Biwi, 40, and Jolly Biwi, 38, were among the women. Both are distantly related to Bhadu Sheikh, whose murder had triggered the massacre.
Selina and Jolly both lived at a two-storey house with a poultry pen of 50 chickens adjoining the property.
On Wednesday, they were only two of 12 family members who chose to step back inside Bogtui.
Their friend Hasina Biwi, 42, looked forlorn as the group neared the front of her home. A heap of rotten food lay scattered at the threshold, belying what happened during the panic on Monday night. Three crows sat nearby, ready for the group to leave.
“We cannot come back here. All the signs are clear,” said Hasina, whose son works as a migrant labourer in Dubai.
The consensus following Monday’s atrocity seemed to be that though political violence had reared its face in Bogtui in the past, this time it would not be stomached.
“We have had certain crude bomb blasts and factional clashes here before, but never was a woman or child hurt. Never was a night’s sleep left to be questioned forever,” added Hasina, stepping into her former home of 24 years for perhaps the last time.
As she left, she glanced at a forensic team waiting in front of Sona Sheikh's home nearby. She looked away quickly, almost in fear.
Amid the pall of gloom, a group of women, reportedly backed by Trinamul, on Wednesday evening took out a rally demanding peace in the area and asking the “outsiders” to go away from the location.
A women member participating in the peace rally said they don’t want any people visiting the village to spread hatred and play politics over the incident
“It is not organised by Trinamul and the villagers don’t want any further colour to the incident that the opposition parties are trying to add,” said Syed Zimmi, a Trinamul vice president and leader from Rampurhat.
On Wednesday several teams of political parties and social outfits reached the village Bogtui to test the ground and talked to a few villagers, mainly women.
A delegation of CPM led by party’s state secretary Mohammed Salim and Biman Bose went to the spot. BJP MLAs led by leaders of opposition Suvendu Adhikari also reached and went to hospital and the village. Members of social platforms like Bangla Sanskriti Mancha went to the village and demanded a thorough probe in this connection.
Most of the visitors were astonished to see the two-story lavish house — with CCTV cameras fitted at the entrance — of Bhadu Sheikh, which was vacant.
“If you see the house of Bhadu sheikh, it would be clear the clout he wielded. It was the best house in the village,” said a CPM leader in Rampurhat.
