Police clashed with irate villagers protesting the takeover of their land by a state-run company in eastern India, where continuing violence threatens to scare away potential investors, a news report said Sunday, according to AP. Police detained 70 villagers during violence that left one policeman and five villagers injured in Purushottampur, 240 kilometers (149 miles) northeast of Calcutta. Meanwhile, angry farmers and state government supporters clashed in Nandigram, another village in communist-ruled West Bengal state, but no injuries were reported, police said. The villagers are resisting the efforts of the state's leftist coalition government to acquire their farmland at disputed rates for factories, the Press Trust of India news agency said. Local police chief G. Srinivasan said police separated the rival groups _ the farmers and government supporters _ and brought the situation under control. Nandigram is nearly 125 kilometers (80 miles) south of Calcutta, the state capital.
