Busloads of Indian Secular Force supporters were stopped on the way to Kolkata to protest the Waqf Amendment Act, passed by the Indian Parliament in the just-concluded budget session.
Protests over the changed law governing Waqf properties has witnessed large-scale violence Malda and Murshidabad, among few other districts with both ruling Trinamool and the BJP accusing the other of inciting violence.
The ISF – the only non-Trinamool, non-BJP party to have a member in the state Assembly – blocked the Basanti expressway when cops stopped their vehicles coming from Bhangar from proceeding towards Ramlila Maidan in Kolkata.
The cops said the ISF did not seek any permission for a protest meeting at the venue.
Apart from Bhangar, the protesters were coming from Sandeshkhali and Minakha.
“We were going for a peaceful protest. By stopping our vehicles the police is trying to provoke our supporters,” said Naushad Siddiqui, the lone ISF lawmaker in the Bengal Assembly. “The ruling Trinamool is trying to use the protests against the Waqf bill to save its face from the job loss of nearly 26,000 schoolteachers.”
Siddiqui accused the Trinamool and the BJP of working in tandem to destroy Bengal’s syncretic culture for political ends.
“On Sunday, the BJP state leaders issued provocative statements from a public meeting at College Square. They were allowed without any intervention by the cops,” Siddiqui said.
The MLA said they have video footage of the cops stopping the vehicles and will approach the court for redressal.
The Bengal government has suspended the internet in Murshidabad with prohibitory orders in place at Suti, Samserganj, Dhulian and Jangipur.
Senior police officers said the situation in these towns is under control now.
The BSF personnel are marching on the streets in the violence-hit areas along with the state police and rapid action force.
Junior union minister and state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar is in Malda’s Baishnabnagar to meet the violence affected people from neighbouring Murshidabad who have taken shelter in the Malda town.
“The state government gave a free hand to the criminals to carry on with their act of violence and terrorise the Hindus. They are not using the central forces effectively,” Majumdar said Monday,
The BJP’s Purulia MP Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato has demanded imposition of Armed Forces Security Protection Act in the violence hit areas.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said NIA should probe the Murshidabad violence.
"Properties over Rs. 100 crore were destroyed. Children as young as 12 to 14 were used in the violence. Shops were destroyed just like in Bangladesh. We are not going to let the government hide this issue. The government should repair the homes and shops destroyed," said Adhikari.