The incident took place following the death of Sahid Alam, a Congress supporter in North Dinajpur

A group of alleged Congress supporters torched houses of Trinamul leaders in North Dinajpur’s Chopra block on Tuesday following the death a party worker late on Monday.

The incident took place following the death of Sahid Alam, a Congress supporter. Sources said Alam, 38, had sustained bullet injury in a clash between alleged Congress and Trinamul supporters at Dangapara village on Monday. He died at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri later in the night.

Police sources said a group of alleged Congress supporters first attacked and torched the house of Mannan Ujir, a Trinamul panchayat member of Laxmipur and then set afire the residence of North Dinajpur zilla parishad member Aziz Ahmed. Both Ujir and Ahmed managed to escape with their family members.

The miscreants further ransacked three more houses in the area.

A large police force has been deployed in the area to control the situation.

Mohit Sengupta, the president of North Dinajpur district Congress, said: “One of our workers died after he was shot by Trinamul backed miscreants, who were terrorising the area. Today’s (Tuesday) incident is the expression of common people’s anger against these miscreants.”

The district Trinamul leaders have denied the charges. “Congress workers are involved in violence across Chopra block and though we managed to form the board at Laxmipur, we could not open the office because of these goons. Congress backed miscreants shot at our workers and one of their workers died in their own firing. They have torched the houses of our rural body members.”

Sumit Kumar, police chief of the district, said: “We are conducting raids in the affected areas. The situation is under control now.”