A protest rally by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal’s Basirhat town – approximately 100 km north of Kolkata – led to violence, followed by police lathicharge.
BJP workers allegedly started pelting stones at the police personnel, while the latter tried to stop the protesters. Eventually, police used lathicharge to disperse the violent crowd. BJP leaders however, denied that their party workers had pelted stones at the policemen.
The meeting had been called by the BJP to protest the Mamata Banerjee government’s refusal to grant permission to the BJP’s rath-yatras (also being called the “Save Democracy” rallies). The BJP has called a week-long “law violation programme”, which started from today.
On Monday, the BJP moved Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing on the matter.
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BJP’s Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh said he had no idea who had pelted stones and added that the police’s action was “not right”. After Monday’s incident, the BJP has called protest rallies in Kolkata on January 3.
Basirhat has been a rather vulnerable area in Bengal as riots broke out here in July 2017. The administration has been rather cautious about handling today’s law violation programme “to prevent anyone from creating trouble”, officials said.
[Cover image representational]
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