Rishra: Rows of shops forced shut meet the eye as one stepped into the bylanes of Rishra in West Bengal’s Hooghly, where violence that erupted between groups of Hindus and Muslims during BJP-led Ram Navami processions over the weekend continued until the early hours of Tuesday.
Scores of residents had abandoned their homes by Tuesday, fearing a fresh bout of violence, with many turning to relatives for temporary shelter.
The area around Railway Gate No. 4 in Rishra witnessed multiple violence around 8 pm Monday night, a day after stones were allegedly pelted at the Ram Navami processions, of which BJP vice-president Dilip Ghosh and Pursurah MLA Biman Ghosh were a part.
According to eyewitnesses, the violence continued till 3 am Tuesday morning.
“Glass bottles, crude bombs and bricks were hurled from across the railway gate. We are alive today only because of the police. They stood like a shield and protected us, else we would have been dead,” said Mohammed Firoz Ali, a resident of the area.
Recalling how he gathered his family on the terrace moments after violence broke out, Nawal Kishore Mahato told ThePrint, “I was scared. I had women and children with me. Their safety was my priority. I rushed them to the terrace and took cover. The situation was horrible. From the terrace, we saw police being attacked with glass and crude bombs.”
Another resident, Amarnath Das, said he was returning home with his wife around 10.30 pm Monday when a fresh flare-up occurred, adding that Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel ensured their safety.
Sixteen of the 50 people arrested in connection with the violence have been sent to police custody for 14 days, while 30 have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days, police sources said. The remaining 4 have been sent to four-day police custody, they added.
Speaking to reporters in Rishra Tuesday, Amit Javalgi, Commissioner, Chandannagar police commissionerate, said, “We have taken all necessary measures to maintain peace. We have also started identifying the troublemakers. No one will be spared.”
The violence in Rishra was preceded by clashes between groups of Hindus and Muslims in Howrah’s Shibpur on 30 March. On Monday, the Calcutta High Court directed the state government to file a comprehensive report on the violence reported from Shibpur during and after a Ram Navami procession there.
Meanwhile, a war of words has ensued between the BJP and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, with both pointing fingers at each other for the violence.
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Cutting short his trip to North Bengal, West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose rushed to Rishra Tuesday to take stock of the situation. The governor also spoke to senior police officers, railways officials and local residents, and termed the instances of communal violence in the area “intolerable”.
“We will never allow forces of darkness to hold society to ransom. We will take strict action against wrongdoers. People have a right to live peacefully and that right will be established at any cost,” he told reporters in Rishra.
To that effect, a strong police presence has been deployed in Rishra to prevent any further untoward incidents.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the BJP of fanning tensions between Hindus and Muslims.
Addressing a rally in Purba Medinipur Tuesday, she said, “They (BJP) don’t know that people of Bengal don’t like this. The BJP is not able to cope, that’s why they are instigating violence. This is not communal violence, this is criminal violence.”
Banerjee appealed to both Hindus and Muslims to maintain harmony and alleged that the BJP “brought in hired goondas (goons) from other states to unleash violence in Bengal”.
Although Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar was stopped from entering Rishra, where Section 144 of the CrPC is in place, a delegation of party leaders went to the Raj Bhavan with a memorandum seeking the intervention of central agencies and a special probe into the state’s law and order situation, particularly “criminal and terror” cases.
Locket Chatterjee, the BJP MP from Hooghly who was apprehended by police at the Rishra railway station in light of prohibitory orders and asked to return to Kolkata, accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of trying to shield the perpetrators. “Mamata Banerjee is doing appeasement politics because panchayat polls and Lok Sabha polls are coming. She wants to concentrate on Muslim votes,” Chatterjee told reporters.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)