Kolkata: Fifteen-year-old Snigdha Haldar, a Class 10 student of Kamala Girls’ School, was in the middle of last-minute preparations for her Madhyamik exams, which began on Monday. It was around 8.30 pm on Sunday. Her mother Purnima was in the kitchen preparing dinner when both heard screams outside their home.Unsure of what was happening, Snigdha was just going to alert her mother. when the deafening blast of a country-made bomb sent her into a panic. “I ran to my mother and clutched her. Brickbats were flying and things were being smashed all around. Every second, the sounds seemed to come closer,” she said. Snigdha said she could not sleep until 2 am. “I had to wake up again around 5 am to complete my revision,” she added.Nearly 19 hours after a clash allegedly between two rival promoter gangs — an attack residents claim was planned and executed by Kasba-Tiljala syndicate king and strongman Sona Pappu — the scars of Sunday’s late-evening violence were still visible along Panchannatala Road and in Kankulia, near Golpark.Snigdha’s trauma was echoed by lawyer Amitabha Chakraborty, a resident of the Benubon Cooperative Society opposite her home, close to the office of promoter Bapi Haldar — the man who was allegedly the target of the attack. “My father recently underwent a major heart operation. He almost collapsed on my shoulders when he heard the bomb blast. Since then, he has been in deep trauma,” Chakraborty said. “I don’t know what is behind all this. All I want is peace to return.”Locals claimed this was the third attack by the Sona Pappu gang in the area since Covid. “The first was a minor incident involving a few slaps and threats nearly two years ago. Another attack took place during Ganesh Puja last year under similar circumstances, though the number of attackers was fewer,” said Rajesh Das, a hawker at Gariahat Market. Questioning the motive behind the violence, Das added, “Why should someone come all the way from Kasba to create trouble? My son was barely a few metres from where the first bomb was hurled. Why should ordinary people like us suffer because of turf wars?”A 66-year-old resident of the adjoining Krishnakunja Apartment said friends had come to visit her after a three-day hospital stay when the violence broke out. “I live on the third floor and could see a lot of commotion downstairs. I knew around 150 locals had gone on a picnic off the Basanti Highway, so at first I thought people were celebrating,” she said.“When the bomb went off, I became worried because all the glass panes in my flat shook — unusual for a cracker burst. It was only about 30 minutes later that I realised it was an attack. Everyone who had come to meet me got stuck inside the house and we were all anxious,” said the senior citizen, who declined to be named.Residents of local housing societies said they shut their main gates as the violence unfolded. Members of the Benubon Cooperative Society even contacted residents of the nearby slum — many of whom work in the apartment complex — to gather details about the attack. “We moved here in 1994. The area is otherwise peaceful, and we share a cordial relationship with the Kankulia slum residents,” said Amrita Mukherjee, a resident of a nearby standalone flat. “These attacks have left all of us shaken. We hope the police will take adequate action.”(With inputs from Debobrata Shome)
