Junior Bengal minister and 10 Trinamul Congress workers suffered splinter injuries when unidentified people hurled around a dozen crude bombs at them at Nimtita railway station in Murshidabad on Wednesday night.

Police sources said Hossain, 54, the junior labour minister and Suti Trinamul MLA, was attacked while he was waiting at platform 2 to board the Calcutta-bound New Alipurduar-Sealdah Teesta Torsa Express around 10pm.

Hossain, a business tycoon in the Murshidabad district, has been admitted to Jangipur subdivisional hospital, around 30km from the spot, where doctors were trying to treat injuries to the legs and the left hand.

“We are trying to stop his bleeding and only then can we refer him to Calcutta for better treatment,” said a doctor.

The police said the pilot car and security personnel had dropped the minister outside the station and he walked up to the platform, along with his personal guard.

Asked about the reason for the attack, the police said they were investigating the incident and it was too early to comment on the probe.

Two of the 10 party workers accompanying the minister have been seriously injured and admitted to the Jangipur hospital, the police said.

“Police have already reached the spot. We are trying to identify the goons from CCTV footage with help of railway police. No one has been arrested so far,” said Y Raghuvamshi, superintendent of Jangipur police district.

Abu Taher Khan, president of the Murshidabad unit of the Trinamul, said: “We can’t imagine a gentleman and popular politician like Jakir Hossain could have enemies who would try to kill him. We have requested the police to arrest the culprits as soon as possible.”

He added that Hossain had participated in a meeting in Behrampore where Trinamul had decided to expel the chairperson of Murshidabad zilla parishad, Musharaf Hossain, for anti-party activities.

State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said: “The attack on a minister shows the real picture of law and order in the state.”

Attack on Suvendu

BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Shankudeb Panda, along with the party’s North Calcutta district president Shibaji Singha Roy, were allegedly attacked while they were marching towards the deputy commissioner’s office in Calcutta late on Wednesday evening. BJP sources said Roy had been seriously injured and admitted to a private hospital along EM Bypass.