Members of several organisations from the saffron ecosystem threatened to storm the Bangladesh deputy high commission on Circus Avenue and fought police when they were prevented from doing so on Tuesday.
They raised provocative slogans and spewed venom against a community with the ostensible motive of “protecting Hindus”.
Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu man, was lynched in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, and his body was hanged and set ablaze in public view.
The brutality of the attack triggered widespread protests among Hindus across the border and panic among Hindus in Bangladesh.
The violent protests in front of the Bangladesh deputy high commission on Tuesday afternoon came hours after some of the more prominent pockets of Calcutta woke up to posters with provocative slogans.
An outfit that called itself the Hindu Raksha Sena claimed credit for the postering.
“Aaj Bangladesh’e, kaal Kolkata noy toh? 1942’r punorabritti chai na (It is happening in Bangladesh today, but it can happen in Calcutta tomorrow. We do not want a repeat of 1942),” the posters read.
Beckbagan clash
This newspaper counted around 110 posters at 18 locations, including at Moulali, Esplanade, outside Park Street Metro station, Tata Centre, near Maidan Metro station, near the Birla Planetarium bus stand, the Exide crossing, near Sambhunath Pandit Hospital, near Forum Mall, at the Hazra crossing, and near the Kalighat fire brigade.
“We have pasted these posters at prominent locations where a lot of people visit. It is to attract the attention of the people to keep reminding them that they should not forget the death of our Hindu brother Dipu Das, even if it is a festive season. We must never forget,” said Mukund Jha, a spokesperson for the Hindu Raksha Sena.
On Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of men and women who said they were from the Bangiyo Hindu Jagaran Mancha and were clad in saffron met at Sealdah station and marched towards the Bangladesh deputy high commission through AJC Bose Road, disrupting weekday traffic.
In a few minutes, the entire stretch near Beckbagan was covered with saffron flags. The trouble started when the demonstrators, making incendiary statements and chanting religious slogans, started to push through the police barricades.
“There were some scheduled demonstrations outside the venue (Bangladesh deputy high commission) on Tuesday. As a part of the arrangement, we had put up a three-tier cordon outside the office. But this group started to break through the cordons. We used the baton when they tried to breach the third and last cordon. They failed to breach that,” said an officer of Kolkata Police.
Long after the protests were over, scars of the day lay strewn all over — damaged barricades, slippers, shoes, bags and other small belongings pockmarked the road on Tuesday evening.
Several saffron-clad men who were part of the protest targeted a particular community and accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of “appeasement”.
“We will continue to protest as long as we feel Hindus are unsafe. Today, a Hindu has been lynched in Bangladesh. What is the guarantee that the same will not happen here?” said one of those at the protest.
The police have made extra arrangements outside the Bangladesh deputy high commission, apprehending similar protests and tension in the coming days.
The police on Tuesday evening said that several misleading claims were being circulated on social media about the incident in Beckbagan.
Assertions that the protest was entirely peaceful and that police action was unprovoked are incorrect, the law-enforcers said.