Though the situation is returning to normal with schools, shops and markets reopening and people returning to their homes, the fear of violence is palpable among the locals.

"We are afraid to think of the time when the CRPF will leave. We are still being threatened by CPI-M cadre who often tell us how many days will the CRPF be here," says a woman houses in a near-empty relief camp set up by the Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee at the Brajamohan Tiwari High School at Nandigram town after the recapture by the CPI(M).

Her feelings are echoed by innumerable others in this trouble-torn area. Predictably nobody is willing to be quoted.

"A woman told us at Satengabari village that the attacks on Nandigram this time started from the eighth day of roza (Ramzan) before Eid," a spokesperson of NGO Actionaid-International India, who is a on a visit here, told PTI.

Satengabari is not within the area that was earmarked for the chemical hub planned at Nandigram but locals there had earned the ire of the CPI-M as they had protested against the use of the road in the area by attackers from Khejuri, a CPI-M stronghold, the people said.