Two brothers were hacked to death on Friday afternoon by their uncle and his son over a boundary wall between their houses in Malda’s Kanainagar village under Kaliachak police station area.

The deceased have been identified as milkmen Sudam Ghosh, 30, and Bidhan Ghosh, 26. Their uncle and cousin, Nikhil and Bikram, have fled.

Sources said Nikhil, who lived next to the brothers, did not want a boundary wall between his land and that of his nephews. When the brothers built the wall, allegedly Nikhil asked them to remove it or face dire consequences. On Friday, when the brothers went to a tea stall, allegedly Nikhil and his son Bikram attacked them fatally with sharp weapons.

Sudam’s wife Pinky said doctors at the local hospital pronounced the brothers dead on arrival. Bidhan’s wife Munmum said onlookers were too afraid to intervene as Nikhil and Bikram were in a fierce mood and threatened others too.

“Our officers are in search of the duo. Policemen are patrolling in the village to keep the situation under control,” said Alok Rajoria, the Malda SP.

Cannabis seizure’

Acting on a tip off, the police of Phansidewa police station in Darjeeling district seized an illegal consignment of 140kg cannabis from the driver’s cabin of a truck near Ghoshpukur, some 25km from Siliguri, on Thursday. Police sources said the truck was coming from Assam. Tripura residents S. Sharma and Afzal Hossain have been arrested. They had loaded the narcotic substance in the vehicle in Guwahati, police said.

Additional reporting by our Siliguri correspondent