Former CPI-M legislator shot dead in Bengal

Kolkata, June 9 (IANS) Former Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) legislator Dilip Sarkar was Sunday shot dead in West Bengal, police said.

"Sarkar was shot dead Sunday morning by four motorcycle-borne assailants in Burnpur in Burdwan district," Commissioner of Police (Asansol-Durgapur) Ajay Nand said.

The veteran Marxist, critically injured in the attack, was rushed to hospital but he died on the way, police said.

Sarkar, 64, had represented the Barabani assembly constituency and was a secretariat member of the party's district committee.

The CPI-M pointed fingers at the ruling Trinamool Congress and called a 12-hour shutdown Monday in Asansol.

"The Trinamool has created a reign of terror across the state and the murder of our leader is only a part of the terrorism carried out by the ruling party," said party's district committee secretary Amol Haldar.

The Trinamool rubbished the allegations and attributed the murder to factional feud within the CPI-M.

"The death is a result of CPI-M's intra-party feud," said Moloy Ghatak, agriculture minister and Trinamool legislator.