Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday dismissed claims of police firing as the cause behind the death of two youths during clashes between students and police at a school in North Dinajpur’s Islampur, and instead blamed the BJP for the deaths.

The north Bengal town has been on the boil amid a war of words between Trinamul and the BJP since the deaths of Tapash Burman, 23, and Rajesh Sarkar, 19, from injuries suffered during the skirmishes on Thursday.

Both were former students of the Daribhit High School, which had been buffeted by students’ protests against an Urdu and a Sanskrit medium teacher sent to the institution. The pupils insisted they needed Bangla medium teachers. The BJP has called a 12-hour Bengal bandh on September 26 against the deaths.

“The deaths are unfortunate… I have information based on post-mortem reports that those who died did not suffer any injury due to police firing. The BJP-RSS are trying to play a political game over bodies but we know they are responsible for the deaths. They brought goons from outside and created trouble at the school. Now they (BJP-RSS) have called a Bangla Bandh over this. I am telling you, there will be no bandh,” Mamata told reporters in Milan .

The chief minister is slated to meet prominent Italian businessmen on Monday to pitch Bengal as an investment destination and invite business leaders from Milan to the government’s annual investment summit lined up in February.

“I have come here for the sake of Bengal’s youths… We want to create jobs for them,” she said.

Mamata’s trip to Germany and Italy has come under fire from the Opposition parties with questions being raised on whether the visit was justified at a time one of Calcutta’s biggest trading hubs, Bagree Market, caught fire.

“Each time I am out, they try to create some problems. They do such things even when I go to Delhi,” Mamata said.

The chief minister made it clear that though she was away, she was in full command and passed on the necessary instructions, like suspending the education official who had posted the two new teachers at the Islampur school, triggering the flare-up.

Mamata alleged that “outsiders with their faces covered” were brought to create trouble ahead of Muharram, observed a day after the school showdown.

“They are trying to give a communal colour to the entire incident as one of the teachers was for Urdu medium… All these are attempts by the BJP-RSS to divert attention from the spiralling prices of petrol and diesel and the Rafale deal,” Mamata said.