Sitalkuchi, Cooch Behar: In the remote Jorpatki village of Sitalkuchi near the India-Bangladesh border, there is no enthusiasm regarding the approaching Assembly election this time around. Instead, a palpable sense of suppressed fear pervades the area. As is customary during elections, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other security forces have arrived to ensure security. The Election Commission says their presence is meant to reassure voters and ensure free and fair elections. But in this border pocket of Cooch Behar district, the sight of uniformed personnel evokes not confidence but fear and a painful memory that never quite faded.As West Bengal prepares for the first phase of its Assembly elections on April 23, that memory still casts a long shadow over Jorapatki. Here, villagers say, the election season no longer brings excitement. Instead, it has revived the trauma of the 2021 Assembly election, when four unarmed residents were killed in firing by central forces outside a polling station.With central forces deployed in the area again, and route marches expected as part of the poll-security drill, their presence, for many in Jorapatki, is a reminder of a day that turned voting into mourning. At the centre of that memory is Booth No. 5/129 at Amtali Madhyamik Shiksha Kendra, the polling station where during the 2021 Assembly election the forces had opened fire. Around 58% of the electorate here belongs to the Muslim community.During the recently-conducted Special Intensive Revision (SIR), this booth with 1,037 voters in the draft roll ended up with 1,034 in the final roll, but also with 347 names marked under adjudication – 11 of them of Hindu Dalit voters and the rest Muslims.Also read: West Bengal SIR: Final Electoral Roll Shows 60 Lakh Voters in Legal LimboAmong those affected is the family of Moniruzzaman, one of the four men who was killed in the 2021 firing. His father, Amjad Hossain, said several dozen members of his extended family were asked to appear before election authorities during the SIR.“Forty-seven members of our close family received summons for hearings. Everyone went to the [Election] Commission and submitted documents. Even then, our names are under adjudication going by the latest list. And on the other hand, the forces shot my son dead while he had stood in the voting line. Is this justice?” Hossain asked bitterly.The home of one of the men who died in the firing, Mohammad Nur Alam Mian, at Jorapatki village. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar.The sense of fear in Jorapatki is inseparable from the events of April 10, 2021, when polling for the fourth phase of the Assembly elections was underway in Sitalkuchi. Villagers allege that during the course of the day, a confrontation developed around the polling station, at booth No. 5/129. What followed, they say, was sudden and indiscriminate firing by central forces that left the four residents dead on the spot.Villagers insist none of those who were shot were active political workers. Since the incident, calls to defend democracy and participate in the electoral process have sat uneasily beside a community’s demand for justice.West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal has been urging voters to participate without fear and has called for a peaceful and high turnout on voting day. But to Sitalkuchi residents, the state’s call to democratic participation collides with the unresolved violence of 2021.Achima Bibi, whose husband Hamidul Mia was among those killed, does not hear reassurance in such appeals. She says, “Was anyone ever punished for killing voters in the name of controlling a disturbance?”Achima Bibi (R) with her neighbours, Jorapatki village. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar.As she speaks, other villagers sit around her in silence. Their grief no longer needs to be expressed; it has become a part of daily life.Jorapatki, in Mathabhanga Block I in Cooch Behar, is a small settlement about half an hour from Sitai More, connected by a narrow rural road. It is home largely to marginal farmers and labourers, mostly members of the minority community, with some residents earning a living as masons. In such a village, elections were once occasions of participation and anticipation. This time, locals say, they feel a sense of dread.Residents allege that on the afternoon of polling in 2021, local BJP leaders triggered a commotion near the booth. As people from the area rushed to see what it was about, the central forces allegedly opened fire on them. The forces later withdrew, but left behind a climate of fear that has endured all these years.The state government later provided jobs to family members of the four deceased. But while employment brought some economic relief, locals say it did not erase the trauma or the questions surrounding the firing.In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had described the episode as a “genocide” and alleged that the victims had been shot in the “chest or neck”. Her party, the Trinamool Congress’s MP, Derek O’Brien, had called it “cold-blooded murder” and cited autopsy findings that, according to him, also suggested they were shot from a close range.A martyrs’ memorial now stands beside the wall of Amtali Madhyamik Shiksha Kendra in memory of the deceased.The memorial constructed after the killing. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar.“They [the government] could never explain why the central forces fired so recklessly on four innocent villagers,” said local Trinamool Congress leader Rabindranath Ghosh, adding, “If a crowd had gathered, the protocol should have been lathi-charge or firing in the air. Why were bullets aimed at the head and chest of poor villagers? We have lost faith in the central forces.”At the time of the incident, the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) had offered a sharply different account of what had transpired. In an official statement, it said that 150 to 200 agitated people had entered Sitalkuchi Booth No. 126 and attempted to snatch rifles from security personnel, forcing them to fire in self-defence.That version of events has found little acceptance in the village. Mohammad Safaruddin, an elderly resident who says he witnessed the events unfold that day, alleges the patrolling jawans had launched a lathi-charge and assaulted Jahidul Haque, a 14-year-old Class 8 student, who collapsed unconscious with his mouth foaming. According to Safaruddin, it is that assault which enraged local residents, who moved towards the school compound with sticks in hand.But, he insists, the villagers, though they had been angry, did not attack the forces.Md Safaruddin (L), an eyewitness to the 2021 firing. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar.He alleges that the situation escalated when a CISF Quick Response Team (QRT) vehicle entered the school premises and opened fire without warning.“There was no announcement, no tear gas, no rubber bullets. Eight rounds were fired. Two men in plain clothes with the QRT pointed at specific persons and the CISF fired at them. Samiul Haque, a first-year college student, was pinned down with a boot and shot in the chest at point-blank range. Four people died on the spot,” Safaruddin said.As polling approaches again, Jorapatki remains suspended between the official language of electoral security and vivid local memories of a violent event. The forces may have returned to ensure confidence in the process. In this village, their presence also recalls a question that has not yet been answered.