Two persons died and seven others were injured when a sand-laden truck rammed into an e-rickshaw at Birpara Chowpathi on the outskirts of Alipurduar town on Monday afternoon.

Sources said a group of people were travelling in an e-rickshaw when the truck collided with the vehicle around 2.30pm.

“The truck was coming from the Cooch Behar side at a high speed. As it reached ITI More near Chowpathi, the driver lost control and the truck rammed into the e-rickshaw,” said a source.

“There were nine persons in the e-rickshaw all of whom got injured. They were rushed to the district hospital in Alipurduar where doctors declared two of them dead,” the source added.

The deceased have been identified as Shibu Barman, 58, and Ruchika Barman, 44, both residents of neighbouring areas.

The incident sparked tension in the area as over 500 people resorted to protests and blocked the road. This led to a halt in traffic movement between Alipurduar and Cooch Behar.

As police reached the spot, a section of protesters got agitated and ransacked the police vehicle. They also got into scuffle with the policemen.

After some time, additional policemen were brought in to control the situation.

In another incident, the police arrested two persons on Sunday night and seized two firearms and 35 rounds of live cartridges from the duo.

The police sources said Arjun Pal and Mangal Bin were arrested from Tapshikhata located on the outskirts of Alipurduar town. Both are residents of Pundibari in the neighbouring district of Cooch Behar.

“The duo had brought the firearms and ammunition from Munger of Bihar. We are trying to find out whether they had brought those for sale or had some other plans,” said a police officer.

Drug seizure

The Special Task Force (STF) of the state police arrested three persons, including a woman, from New Jalpaiguri station on Sunday after brown sugar estimated at Rs 10 crore was seized from them.

Brown sugar is a derivative of heroin.

Those arrested have been identified as Mohammad Safikul Islam, a resident of Malda, Sher Bahadur Tamang, who hail from Nagaland and Prabha Mallick, an inhabitant of Assam.

Tamang and Prabha took a train from northeast to reach NJP where they were supposed to hand over the consignment of narcotic to Islam, police sources said.

Altogether, 2.23 kilos of the narcotic which costs around Rs 10 crore was seized from the trio.