A three-member BJP delegation, led by former Union minister and Burdwan-Durgapur MP Surinder Singh Ahluwalia, on Saturday visited the violence-hit Bhatpara area in North 24-Parganas and alleged that the ongoing strife was the result of “inefficient handling” by police.
“The violence is continuing unabated. We are here to assess the situation and we will file a report with the party president and Union home minister Amit Shah on our return. Let me tell you that the Union home minister is worried about what’s happening in Bengal,” said Ahluwalia.
The other team members were Mumbai police commissioner and MP Satya Pal Singh and former Jharkhand director-general of police and MP Vishnu Dayal Ram.
Accompanied by Barrackpore BJP MP Arjun Singh and a few state leaders, the team visited the houses of Ram Babu Shaw and Dharam Veer Shaw, who had died during clashes on Thursday and whom the BJP has called victims of police firing.
“We condemn the manner in which the police fired at innocent people in the name of maintaining law and order. The two people died of police firing and the unrest is due to the inefficient handling of the situation by the police,” said Ahluwalia.
Ahluwalia showed portions of spent self-loading rifle (SLR) bullets and claimed these had been used by the police on Thursday. “The police are saying they had fired in the air. If that is true, how can it hit two innocent people who died in the firing?” Ahluwalia asked. The state BJP has demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged firing.
Local MP Singh said he would give Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the deceased and take the responsibility for education of the children in their families.
Singh — who had quit Trinamul and joined the BJP ahead of the general election this year — blamed the strife on chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s attempt to “regain control of the area”. Trinamul lost the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat and the Bhatpara Assembly segment that Singh used to represent earlier.
The Trinamul challenged the claim and held Singh responsible for the violence.
Not long after the BJP team left, Bhatpara erupted again, with some locals resorting to brick-batting and prompting police to lathi-charge the groups. One person suffered head injuries.
Locals demanded restoration of normality in the area where schools, markets and offices have been mostly shut because of the violence.
“Don’t know when everything will be normal. Life has become hell here,” Gayatri Devi, a homemaker, said.
Cong-Left team
A joint delegation of the Congress and the Left MLAs led by Bengal leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan and Left leader Sujan Chakraborty also visited Bhatpara. Apart from Mannan and Chakraborty, other MLAs in the joint delegation were Tanmoy Bhattacharya, Manash Mukherjee and Ashok Dinda.
The delegation, which went to the area before the BJP leaders, also demanded court-monitored CBI inquiry or a judicial probe into the alleged police firing.
