Meanwhile, intermittent firing and bomb blasts were reported from CPI(M) strongholds of Tekhalibazar and Bhangabera areas since last evening.
East Midnapore district police Superintendent G Srinivas said the firing and hurling of bombs lasted for about an hour and stopped at around 12 noon.
Peace could at last return to troubled Nandigram block in East Midnapore district, the scene of protests against a proposed special economic zone, with an all-party peace meeting today calling for an end to violence.
He said a missile firing system would be more effective in repulsing an attack or preventing an economic blockade.
"There were CPI-M men carrying red flags who blocked my car and some other vehicles which were going along with mine to Nandigram. I was hit on the face and they tried to pull my hair and were about to drag me out of the car," Patkar told PTI over phone from the spot.
One person died "accidentally" when he had gone out fishing, she said.
The West Bengal government's report to the Election Commission on Friday on the incident at Nandigram in which chief minister Mamata Banerjee was injured has no mention of the 'four-five persons', who she had alleged had attacked her, an official of the state CEO's office said.
Four days after Trinamool Congress heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari resigned from the state cabinet, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and election strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday met him, following which the party claimed that 'all the issues have been resolved'.
Adhikari, the face of the Nandigram movement that catapulated Mamata Bannerjee to power in 2011, sent his resignation letter to the chief minister by fax, which he then forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar by e-mail.
Three persons, including husband of a Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate, were killed on Monday and several others injured in violence during the second phase of panchayat elections in West Bengal where 75 per cent polling was recorded.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew and party MP Abhishek Banerjee was on Sunday slapped by a party worker during a rally at Chandipur in East Midnapore district.
Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday admitted to the complicity of his partymen in the killing of nine villagers at Netai in January, 2011 during his tenure as Chief Minister of West Bengal, which had caused a nationwide outcry.
Bharatiya Janata Party's West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh said on Sunday that his party would "restore democracy" in the state if voted to power, warning Trinamool Congress cadres to mend their ways or they will have to either visit hospital or crematorium.
TMC on a roll, wins 13 out of 17 zilla parishads in WB
Twenty-three persons have died in flash floods in East and West Midnapore districts of West Bengal during the past two days, officials said. West Midnapore District Magistrate N S Nigam said 15 persons died in his district. All 15 deaths were reported from Sabang, Pingla and Narayangarh. Of these, Narayangarh alone accounted for 11 deaths.
This is the first time in the history of Jharkhand that it is facing such a severe cyclonic storm.
While man and a woman were reported killed when trees came crashing down on them in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, a 13-year-old girl died in a similar incident in adjoining Howrah. No casualties have been reported from Odisha yet.
The body of an 8-year-old girl who had gone missing was on Thursday found in a field with locals lynching one man whom they claimed was part of a group which had gang-raped and murdered her, police said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to people to maintain peace and calm and urged the protesters to refrain from taking law into own hands.
A day after Cyclone Yaas tore through coastal Odisha and Bengal to cause havoc as far as Jharkhand, tornadoes, torrential rains, bridge collapses and swelling rivers continued to plague eastern India as people tried to pick up their lives amid the debris of swept away mud homes and swamped farmlands.
Abhishek warned that those who dared to challenge the TMC administration will have their eyes gouged out and their hands chopped off.
Principal Secretary of the state health department Bibek Kumar, in his letter to the secretary of the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday, described the list as "an erroneous assessment" and said Bengal, keeping in view the parameters set by the Centre, has earmarked four "red" zones -- Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore.
Veteran Trinamool Congress MP Sisir Adhikari -- father of BJP heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari -- joined the party in Egra in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior leaders of the party.
Sixteen more bodies were found during search operations on Monday, taking the toll to 41 in the trawler capsize mishap near Talpatty island in the Hooghly river in South 24 Parganas district. "Sixteen more bodies were recovered, but the toll is likely to rise as there is a possibility of recovering more bodies," said South 24 Parganas District Magistrate N S Nigam.
The Centre has sought a detailed report from the West Bengal government on the circumstances leading to the violence.
The deep depression over central Bay of Bengal is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm by Sunday evening and after changing course in a northeastward direction from northwest.
The weatherman said when 'Amphan' makes the landfall between West Bengal's Digha, some 180 km from Kolkata, and Hatiya island in Bangladesh on Wednesday afternoon or evening, it will pack sustained wind speed of 155 to 165 kmph, gusting at 185 kmph. The gale-force wind, blowing at a speed of 240 to 250 kmph and gusting to 275 kmph at one point, had lost intensity and was moving at a speed of 200 to 210 kmph, gusting to 230 kmph on Tuesday evening.
IMD Director General Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that 'Yaas' is likely to intensify into a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm by Tuesday evening and Chandbali is likely to witness the maximum damage caused by it.
The Army was deployed in Kolkata and its neighbouring districts on Saturday, hours after the West Bengal government sought its help for immediate restoration of essential infrastructure and services in the state.
After the video clip of his comments went viral, Giri apologised for making such a remark.
West Bengal: Flood situation improves, alert still on
Laxman Chandra Seth, believed by the vast population of the area to have been the villain of the historic anti-farmland acquisition movement in 2007, said the two built their political careers by misleading the innocent people of Nandigram. Now their lies are back to haunt them.
Neither do they have a no-objection certificate from the state nor any kind of Reserve Bank of India permission.
The Trinamool Congress on Monday appeared set to sweep the crucial panchayat poll in West Bengal with a huge margin in most of the districts, taking a comfortable lead in gram panchayat in 12 of 17 districts.
The severe cyclonic storm, which brought in its wake heavy rain coupled with gale wind till early Sunday, uprooted hundreds of trees and snapped cables in Kolkata and in the coastal districts of North and South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore, bring life to a near-halt.
Hundreds of people complained that they had to go without food and sleep in the aftermath of cyclone, which has wreaked havoc in Bengal, as their homes lay inundated amid heavy showers that continued to pummel several parts of the state.
The IMD has also issued a red-coded warning alert to the Odisha and West Bengal coasts.
The West Bengal government on Saturday sought support of the Indian Army, railways and port for restoring essential infrastructure and services in the cyclone-ravaged areas of the state. It also urged private entities to provide manpower and equipment for the purpose.
A blood-soaked Nandigram made Mamata Banerjee what she is today and underpins the hopes of the combustible West Bengal leader of clinching a third straight term in office.
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