On 5 February 2009 a posse of police force, deployed at Nagrakata P.S. in the Dooars (Jalpaiguri District) region of North Bengal opened fire on adivasi protesters and fatally injured at least 2 persons, both leaders of the local unit of Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), with metal bullets fired from point blank range. They were shot from behind while purportedly trying to secure the protesters, caught under heavy tear gas shelling.

On the previous night, 4 adivasi activists of ABAVP, named in an FIR lodged by Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM), were arrested from nearby Naya Saily Tea Estate and taken to Jalpaiguri Kotowali under cover. Since early morning the next day, 5000 adivasi protesters, mostly Jharkhandis, gheraoed Nagrakata Police Station and demanded immediate release of the arrested persons. The arrest was believed to be a ploy of the state police administration despite the prior caution sent forth by the Officer-in-charge of the PS in anticipation of adivasi retaliation. Against such mass outrage, the district police administration, willy-nilly, had to succumb to the pressure and agreed in freeing the accused persons. But the delay in bringing them back from Jalpaiguri Town enraged the masses and some of them started pelting stones on the thana building. A large number of young men and women got trapped in the melee. Without resorting to prior lathi charge, the police force opened fire first with rubber bullets and followed by 3 rounds of INSAS bullets. Kailash Singh, aged 28 years, was shot in his abdomen and Sanjay Kujur of the same age lost his finger. They were later shifted to North Bengal Medical College and had to undergo surgery. A 5-member State committee team under the leadership of Com. Partha Ghosh rushed to the hospital the same night for ensuring post-operative care. Surprisingly, the police authority has been denying the use of metal bullets till date.

Following this incident of police firing, W.B. State Secretary Partha Ghosh and party Politburo member Com. Kartick Pal addressed a Press Conference at Siliguri and demanded Judicial Inquiry into the highhandedness of the police personnel. The State Govt. was also asked to summon an All Party Meeting towards bringing back peace and amity by putting a stop to the ongoing ethnic clashes between the Adivasis and the Gorkhas in the Dooars region. A strong demand to reopen the 13 closed Tea Gardens of the region was also floated.

On 8 February 2009, a CPI(ML) investigation team under the leadership of Jalpaiguri Party Secretary Com. Subrata Chakraborty visited Nagrakata and talked to the local leadership of ABAVP, the officer-in-charge of Nagrakata PS, the local CPI(M) leader Ashu Sarkar (this CPM strongman has already been accused of instigating communal violence in the area) and some other eye-witnesses of the incident.

During this investigation, it was revealed that the ongoing ethnic clash was primarily set off over the GJMM demand to include the entire Dooars region under their proposed Gorkha Land area. The prevailing sense of insecurity of the adivasis of the area was first manipulated by the CPI(M) leadership by inciting their popular sentiment against the Nepali population of the adjacent tea gardens and forest villages. Adivasi Vikas Parishad, an All India NGO network, had been taken into confidence towards perpetrating violence against the Nepalis. Recently 80 Nepali houses were burnt down to ashes within Nagrakata PS. But recently the mass outrage had also taken to task the CPI(M) leadership and on the day of the police firing Ashu Sarkar's house was ransacked and rampaged and he was dragged to the police station by the enraged mob.

While the ruling party's game plan stands exposed, it seems that Congress and TMC are gaining ground in the electorate by keeping surreptitious contacts with the ABAVP leadership. The Hills and Dooars bandh called by GJMM on 6 February had taken a toll of two lives. Sporadic backlashes are spreading like prairie fire in the entire Dooars region without much control. It may, at any moment, take a massive riot proportion to the detriment of peace in the Dooars and the Hills. Citizens' unity rallies in Siliguri and other troubled areas of Dooars region to quell the tensions are being undertaken under the active initiatives of our party activists.