Mamata Banerjee has decided to urgently meet clerics and thought-leaders of the Muslim community at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Wednesday, with increasing protests against the amended waqf legislation causing the Trinamool Congress dispensation in Bengal some discomfiture.
At Sajur More in Suti, Murshidabad district, three persons, including a 16-year-old boy, suffered serious injuries when police opened fire to quell a violent protest.
The Bengal chief minister, said sources in the TMC, might advise the party to immediately prepare an effective roadmap on opposing the newly enacted legislation.
“We were fully supportive of the movement against the new waqf law, but protests have been getting out of hand at some places. The optics help none other than the BJP. So she would like to rein this in as quickly as possible,” said a senior in Trinamool.
“Back-channel parleys are already underway, and we are in touch with the most influential voices in the community. The stadium meeting would have taken place sooner, had Poila Baisakh not been in the way,” he added.
Trinamool’s foremost leader from the Muslim community, Firhad Hakim, has been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the Netaji Indoor Stadium event’s success.
He criticised those participating in disruptive practices and allowing their protests to turn violent, as they were working against their cause. “Those doing these things are anarchists. Anarchy never solves any problem,” said the senior minister and Calcutta mayor.
“By allowing themselves to get sucked into this gyre, they are indubitably ending up strengthening the hands of the BJP and its saffron cronies,” he added.
Hakim said minorities were as safe as the majority in Bengal as long as the name of the chief minister of the state remained Mamata Banerjee.
“On April 16, the chief minister will meet everyone, from imams and muezzins to intellectuals. She will make her stand clearer there,” he said.
“But realistically speaking, this fight has to be fought in the Supreme Court, not on the ground here,”added Hakim.
In Murshidabad district, thousands took to the streets at various places to protest against the amended waqf law. The protests at Suti’s Sajur More and Samsherganj’s Daakbungalow More, both along NH12, turned violent and disruptive.
At the Daakbungalow More, a traffic police office was set on fire. Farakka subdivisional police officer Aminul Islam Khan, Samsherganj officer-in-charge Shiba Prasad Ghosh and three other cops were injured in stone-pelting by the mob.
At Sajur More, to regain control of the situation, police were compelled to open fire, injuring three people, including Class VII student Mosharraf Hossain. The extreme measure was resorted to after a mob hurled at least 100 bombs — according to police sources — before vandalising a private bus and a state-owned bus, besides setting afire two ambulances and four police motorcycles.
All the three persons with gunshot wounds are critical and admitted to the Jangipur subdivisional hospital. The situation was somewhat defused around 7pm, after a large police contingent led by Jangipur police district chief Ananda Roy was deployed.
“Mosharraf was returning home from his aunt’s house when he was caught in the violent protests. He is undergoing treatment at a local hospital. Doctors said his condition is critical,” a relative of the boy told ABP Ananda.
The police declined to comment on the incident.
At Dhulian in Samsherganj, local MLA Amirul Islam and Jangipur MP Khalilur Rahaman had been on the ground since the afternoon, trying to prevent a violent protest from getting out of hand, but they failed. The BSF’s help was sought to restore normality in the pocket.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari slammed the violent protests. “People can democratically oppose the amended waqf Act. But what has started from Jangipur is an attempt to make Murshidabad the centre stage of all protests...,” he said.
Adhikari accused minority organisations of trying to inflame passions by “misleading” the people on the Act.
