Fresh trouble erupted in Nandigram after a Communist Party of India-Marxist local committee secretary was killed during an exchange of fire between Trinamool Congress and CPM activists at Rajaramchak village, near Nandigram on Wednesday.
Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans and police rushed to the spot and used batons to disperse the warring groups, police said. Two Trinamool Congress workers were injured in the lathicharge.
According to the police, Niranjan Mondal, CPM's local committee secretary, was returning home from Kolkata when he was caught in the crossfire and received gunshots in his head. Mondal died on the spot.
The EFR jawans launched combing operations in nearby Kalicharanpur and Sonachura to track down the assailants. No arrests have been made yet.
The EFR and armed police personnel were patrolling the area in view of the flared up tension.
Terming the killing "planned murder", CPM district secretary Ashok Guria said the party had called a 24-hour bandh on Thursday at Khejuri I and II, Nandigram I and II and Chandipur blocks. Protests would also be staged in all other blocks, Guria added.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Trinamool Congress supporters gheraoed the Nandigram police station in protest against the alleged assault on villagers by security forces on Tuesday night.
Stray incidents of a bomb attack were reported from two localities following the attack on a local CPM leader Jaidev Barik.
Ten people, including a physically challenged man, were allegedly assaulted on Tuesday night by drunk Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans near an eatery close to the Rajaramchak high school where a camp had been set up to supervise law and order situation in the trouble-torn district.
