“BJP has sinned, and people will suffer?” says Mamata Banerjee

With protesters and police clashing in the Howrah area for the second day over suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Muhammad, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to ask why people should suffer for “sins” committed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Banerjee said that some political parties want to engineer clashes and riots.

“I have said this before. For two days, normal life in Howrah has been disrupted and incidents of violence engineered. Some political parties are behind this and they want to engineer riots. But this will not be tolerated and strict action will be taken. The BJP has sinned, and people will suffer?” said Banerjee’s tweet. At Howrah district near Kolkata, protests against Sharma’s remarks turned violent on Friday and on Saturday morning, another clash was reported in the area. Police hurled tear gas shells to disperse protesters and stones were thrown at them. The Bengal government on Friday issued orders to suspend the internet in the district till Monday and prohibitory orders were imposed. On Thursday, protesters set up roadblocks, which gradually escalated into such violence in the past two days.

The remarks made by Nupur Sharma and another expelled BJP leader Naveen Kumar Jindal has tarnished the image of the country across the world, Banerjee had said earlier. Protests have been reported from various parts of the country, and two deaths were reported from Jharkhand’s Ranchi. Clashes broke out in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi among other areas.