Murshidabad violence: Report by Calcutta HC-appointed panel leaves Trinamool shaky

Kolkata, May 21 (IANS) The latest report by a three-member committee appointed by the Calcutta High Court to probe the communal violence in Muslim-dominated Murshidabad district of West Bengal last month, indicated police negligence and indifference to bring the situation under control before the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) as well as directly naming local Trinamool Congress leaders as masterminds behind the violence.

According to sources, the findings have left the ruling party quite shaky and worried.

Although the top leadership of Trinamool Congress, including the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has maintained total silence on the report that surfaced on Wednesday, maverick party legislator from Bharatpur constituency in Murshidabad district, Humayun Kabir expressed apprehension on the negative impact of the report on the party's poll prospects in the crucial assembly elections scheduled next year.

“A total of 65 cases were filed on the Murshidabad violence. Several arrests were made. Several families were displaced from their residences following the violence. This is bound to impact the polling pattern next year," Kabir told reporters on Wednesday.

He also admitted that the common people in Murshidabad have several grievances against several elected representatives from the ruling party in the district.

“At the same time, the common people are also quite aggrieved over the role of the state administration in handling the violence,” Kabir said.

In the report, the three-member committee named local Trinamool Congress councillor Mehbub Alam and another local Trinamool Congress leader, Amirul Islam, as the principal conspirators behind the violence, against whom the police did not act at the time of the violence.

As per the report, while all the attacks that were carried out on April 11 from 2 p.m. onwards were led by Mehbub Alam from the spot of violence, Amirul Islam reportedly came to the site of the violence, identified the houses that were yet to be destroyed, and informed the goons, who subsequently set those houses on fire.

While Alam vehemently denied the allegations and claimed that he was not at the spot when the tension broke out, Islam was not available for his comments.

Meanwhile, the state leadership had launched scathing attacks against the state administration, claiming that the police deliberately allowed goons from a particular community to carry out the violence, rampage and vandalism for almost four days before CAPF was deployed following an order of the Calcutta High Court.

BJP's state president in West Bengal and the Union minister of state, Sukanta Majumdar, said that the state government initially tried to project an outsider theory behind the Murshidabad violence, which has been rejected in the report of the three-member panel.

"It has been clearly stated in the report that the local miscreants launched the attacks after covering their faces. The state government is still continuing with its efforts to protect the masterminds behind the communal violence. The special investigation team constituted by the state police is yet to make progress in its investigation," Majumdar said.

BJP's state general secretary, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, said that the entire violence was pre-planned and there was a bigger conspiracy behind the Murshidabad massacre.

The violence broke out in pockets of Murshidabad like Dhulian, Suti, and Samserganj on April 8, and finally, CAPF was deployed there on the night of April 12 following an order of the High Court’s special division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury.

While ordering CAPF deployment on April 12 evening, the special division observed that the measures taken by the West Bengal government to control communal unrest in Murshidabad over protests against the newly promulgated Waqf (Amendment) Act turning violent were inadequate.

The special division bench also observed that had the CAPF deployment been earlier, the situation would not have been so “grave” and “volatile”.

Now, the contents of the fresh report given by the three-member committee are totally in line with the observation made by the division bench on April 12.

--IANS

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