Around 1,100 to 1,200 local workers used to work in the mine, but without alternative work opportunities in the remote location, they now look at an uncertain future
Junior Bengal minister and 10 Trinamul Congress workers suffered splinter injuries when unidentified people hurled around a dozen crude bombs at them at Nimtita railway station in Murshidabad on Wednesday night.
Police sources said Hossain, 54, the junior labour minister and Suti Trinamul MLA, was attacked while he was waiting at platform 2 to board the Calcutta-bound New Alipurduar-Sealdah Teesta Torsa Express around 10pm.
Hossain, a business tycoon in the Murshidabad district, has been admitted to Jangipur subdivisional hospital, around 30km from the spot, where doctors were trying to treat injuries to the legs and the left hand.
“We are trying to stop his bleeding and only then can we refer him to Calcutta for better treatment,” said a doctor.