Violent protests in Bengal unleashed by Bangladeshi Muslims in the wake of promulgation of Citizenship Amendment Act for the last two days emphasizes the need to flush them out of India. Most of the violent protesters were Trinamool Congress supporters, said BJP leaders. In some places, shops and business establishments belonging to Hindus were targeted. Shouting ‘Allah-o-Akbar’, a mob of Bangladeshis attacked shops and ransacked them in Howrah, sources in the police said.
The BJP’s national secretary Rahul Sinha said Mamata Banerjee has done little to contain the rising violence. “We never support President’s Rule. But if such anarchy continues in West Bengal, we will be left with no option but to seek President’s Rule in the state. The TMC government is just a mute spectator when the entire state is burning,” Sinha told reporters. “Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators are behind the violence and not the peace-loving Muslim community here. The Muslim community of Bengal should be alert that its name is not tarnished by the rioters,” he said.
On Saturday, Muslim protesters set on fire a number of trains, railway stations and tracks, buses and damaged properties. Women and children were injured when hooligans pelted stones on trains. The protestors mostly targeted railway properties and Murshidabad and Howrah districts bore the brunt of their ire.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has resolutely opposed the Citizenship Amendment Bill, appealed for peace, while the opposition BJP threatened to move the Centre for imposition of President’s Rule if the “mayhem by Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators continued.”
According to media reports, a number of empty trains were set on fire at Krishnapur station in Murshidabad district. The agitators vandalised Sujnipara also in Murshidabad district and set fire on railway tracks at Harishchandrapur in neighbouring Malda district.
They ransacked Sankrail railway station in Howrah district, torched its ticket counter and damaged the signalling system. “When RPF and railway personnel tried to stop them, they were beaten up,” a senior Railway Protection Force official said.
In Howrah Bangladeshis blocked roads and set fire to shops belonging to Hindus. The NH6 was blocked in Domjur by protesters who burnt tyres and ransacked several vehicles, a police official said. A huge police contingent has been rushed to the spot to control the situation, they said. The police sources said a toll plaza was set ablaze in Murshidabad and passengers were forcibly deboarded from a bus at Suti in the district. Tyres were burnt on the roads at Margram in Birbhum. The protests affected movement of trains in South Eastern Railways and in Howrah and Sealdah sections.
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