The BJP slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday for the police action against those protesting the alleged attack on minorities in Bangladesh, terming it a "calculated state-sponsored hooliganism" to silence the voices demanding justice for "persecuted Hindus" in the neighbouring country.

Hundreds of supporters of a pro-Hindutva outfit, protesting the alleged attack on minorities in the neighbouring country, tried to march to the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon and clashed with the police when they were stopped.

Police resorted to baton charges to disperse the protestors who breached barricades in their attempts to move closer to the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission office at Beckbagan in central Kolkata. At least 12 protestors were arrested.

Several protestors and police personnel sustained minor injuries in the clashes.

Reacting sharply to the incident, BJP co-incharge for West Bengal Amit Malviya said, "The barbaric assault on Hindu protesters outside the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata today, where women and the elderly were trapped behind barricades, lathi-charged, manhandled, beaten until they bled, and dragged through the streets, is a calculated act of state-sponsored hooliganism aimed at silencing voices demanding justice for persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh." "Mamata Banerjee must stop hiding behind her thug police force," he said in a post on X.

Malviya said the protests, led by Hindus, were sparked by the horrific murder of Dipu Chandra Das, "who was charred to death" in Bangladesh's Mymensingh, on December 20, over baseless blasphemy allegations.

"Yet, Mamata's police turned a peaceful demonstration into a bloodbath, acting like the TMC's hired goons," he charged.

"This is part of a dangerous pattern in which her police serve as instruments of despotism, mirroring Bangladesh-style brutality that spills Hindu blood to appease radicals," the BJP leader said.

Malviya asserted that the BJP stands firmly with "Bengal's Hindus" as their "true defender, committed to protecting their rights, dignity, and safety".

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