Trinamool Congress leaders in Cooch Behar claimed on Saturday that a group of eight migrant workers from Bengal had been detained at a police station in the BJP-ruled Haryana over the suspicion that they are Bangladeshis.
“They are from Cooch Behar and Murshidabad districts and have been working in different locations for months. They have been detained by the Haryana police at the Badshahpur police station, which is in Gurugram, for the past few days as the police suspect them to be Bangladeshis. This is unacceptable,” Partha Pratim Roy, the Cooch Behar district spokesperson for Trinamool, said.
According to him, the detained workers include Hemanta Barman, Abdul Karim, Ali Hossain Mian of Cooch Behar, and Sujoy Hazra from Murshidabad.
“The Prime Minister (while speaking at a public meeting in Durgapur) yesterday (on Friday) tried to drive home the point that his party and government have huge respect for Bengalis. But today, we came across yet another case of detention of Bengali migrant workers by the police in yet another state where the BJP is in power,”
said Roy.
“This proves the hollowness of the PM’s speech,” the Trinamool leader added.
Trinamool leaders here said that as soon as the issue had come to their notice, they sent identity proofs and other details of the detained workers to MP Samirul Islam, the chairman of the migrant workers’ welfare board.
“I have spoken to him (Islam) and he has assured all help. The MP and officials from the state administration will communicate with the Haryana police so that the workers are released as soon as possible...,” said Roy.