Rights group seeks Bengal peace

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/7091981.stm

Version 0 of 1.

India's top human rights group has asked the federal government to help restore peace in a troubled cluster of villages in eastern West Bengal state.

The National Human Rights Commission has asked the government to report on the measures taken in Nandigram area.

Federal policemen have entered the area, where at least eight people have died in clashes since last week.

There have been skirmishes in the area between armed supporters of the ruling communist and opposition parties.

The rights group has also asked the West Bengal government to submit a report on the conditions prevailing in the area within two weeks.

Bengal's opposition parties, led by the Trinamul Congress party, held a general strike on Monday in protest against last week's violence in Nandigram, a cluster of villages south-west of Calcutta.

'War zone'

One thousand federal policemen have entered Nandigram, where more than 10,000 people have been left homeless by the political violence.

Officials say hundreds of armed supporters of Bengal's ruling communist party have fought their way back into the area.

They had been forced out in March amid protests against the state government's plan to acquire land to set up a special economic zone.

More than 10,000 people had become homeless in Nandigram

Some of Bengal's leading filmmakers, artists and writers have condemned the violence. The filmmakers have withdrawn their films and boycotted an ongoing state-run film festival in Calcutta.

State Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi has condemned the violence and accused the state government of failing to protect the people of the area from attacks by communist supporters.

Amid protests over the land-reform plans, 14 farmers were shot dead by police in the Nandigram area on 14 March, and the government said it would move the project elsewhere.

Hundreds of Marxist supporters fled the area with their families.

The latest violence is linked to their efforts to return home.