As anti-CAA rioters continue to create ruckus in West Bengal, a senior police officer has reportedly been injured on Tuesday, December 17, as a violent mob hurled a bomb towards the team of personnel he was leading to arrest those involved in vandalising the railway station at Sankrail Manikpur area in Howrah city.
West Bengal: Deputy Commissioner of Police (HQ),Howrah Ajeet Singh Yadav (file pic) injured, after a bomb was hurled at police while they were trying to disperse the protesters in Sankrail Manikpur area, today. He has been admitted to a hospital. #CitizenshipAmendmentAct pic.twitter.com/nJmGmaQEdu
— ANI (@ANI) December 17, 2019
Nobody has been arrested so far in connection with the matter, a senior police officer confirmed.
Howrah City Police Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) Ajeet Singh Yadav was injured in both his legs after a bomb was hurled at his team by the violent rioters in the area.
As per reports, Yadav was leading a team to arrest those involved in the vandalisation of the Sankrail station on Sunday when the police personnel were attacked by mobsters. The police team was reportedly beaten up. Yadav has also reportedly suffered injuries on his head. He was rushed to a private hospital.
Roads and rail blockades continued unabated in various parts of West Bengal as anti-CAA riots refuse to die down in the city. The rioters have been resorting to endless vandalism and arson attacks. Train services have been disrupted as rioters laid siege of tracks at various locations in the Howrah and Sealdah routes.
In Howrah, a two-km stretch connecting Sheikhpara with Moukhali in Sankrail resembled a war zone with protesters clashing with cops on December 15. A ticket counter in Bengal’s Sankrail railway station was also set on fire by the violent mobs.
Though numerous railway stations and ticket counters in the state have been ransacked, various trains pelted with stones at and set on fire in the name of protests against the parliament’s decision to amend the citizenship laws, causing immense loss of revenues and badly affecting rail services through the state, it’s Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has asserted that protecting the Indian Railways and its properties in the state are not the responsibility of her Government.
#Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee terms the vandalism / arson of railway stations in the state a ‘small incident’, blames the @ErRpf for failing it’s duty, accuses the central govt of cancelling trains due to such incidents during the anti #CitizenshipAct protests pic.twitter.com/z6RL10DnYD
— Indrojit | ইন্দ্রজিৎ (@iindrojit) December 18, 2019
The situation has escalated to such an extent that as many as 700 trains passing through the state have been cancelled since the protests picked up on Friday (December 13). However, CM Banerjee played down the escalations and attacks on assets of the Indian Railways, rendering them to be “small incidents”.
Attacking the centre over the cancellation of trains, CM Banerjee said: “Just because some trains were set on fire, the centre has stopped railway services in most parts of Bengal. That is not right.”
