Seven houses have been set on fire at the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, the police said on Monday. The houses that were set in fire in West Bengal by TMC goons allegedly belonged to BJP supporters. The violence was initiated after the body of a local Trinamool Congress leader reached Huslurdanga village in Mainaguri area on Sunday, a police officer said.
The BJP has blamed the TMC for the violence. Along expected lines, the ruling party in West Bengal has dismissed the allegations. The rioters, suspected to be from the TMC, went on a rampage at Churabandar in Maynagiri hours after the death of a Trinamool activist. Some shops were also reportedly set on fire. Around 20 BJP supporters are believed to have been injured in the said attack.
TMC’s Mallick Haat booth president Bhombol Ghosh was reportedly attacked with sharp weapons at Huslurdanga market on the 14th of February. He later succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital in Siliguri on Saturday. Local TMC leader Manoj Roy claimed that BJP activists were responsible for the fatal assault on Ghosh. A large contingent under Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Dhendhup Sherpa has been deployed in the area to prevent further escalation of violence.
West Bengal has become a hotbed for political violence. Since the time the Bharatiya Janata Party has made successful inroads into the state, TMC goons have resorted to uncontrolled hooliganism and unleashed severe atrocities on innocent BJP workers.
Several such incidents where BJP Karyakartas have been brutally murdered have been reported in the recent past, and though its sufficiently clear that the TMC goons have been behind every such incident, the party chief Mamata Banerjee, who otherwise is so vocal and vociferous, has always maintained a stoic silence over these inhumane and barbaric acts.