"We don't belong to any political party, neither do we owe allegiance to any. We are free citizens urged by our conscience to be by the side of the suffering lot of Nandigram," says Shaonli Mitra just before leaving for Nandigram.
According to Suvaprasanna, "Democracy and human rights are at stake in Nandigram."
The painter had visited the place last on May 5.
"I have been off sleep since then. Hundreds of homeless are too scared to return home even now. Innocent people are being systematically beaten up and tortured in areas like Gokulnagar and Satengabari -- even pregnant women and children are not being spared," the painter muses.
What is alarming, the intellectuals say, the police are 'working in collusion with the state machinery to perpetrate violence in the area'.
"In fact, area officer-in-charge Debashis Chakraborty is specifically directing his subordinates to terrorise the common people of Nandigram. Though the CBI had lodged a case against him long back, it has not deterred his spirit in the least."
Image: File photo shows intellectuals hitting Kolkata's streets to protest the bloodshed in Nandigram.
Photograph: Deshkalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
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