The night of October 8, 2022, was different for the Hindu residents of Mominpore. Having participated in the Durga Visarjan procession earlier in the day, most of them retired to their beds early.
Unlike other days, the Hindus were awoken in the middle of the night to the cry of violence and destruction. Mishri Lal Dhanuk narrated, “At about 2:30 am, there was chaos over the ‘uprooting’ of an Islamic flag. Mobs came in droves, damaged vehicles, and electric light posts.”
He continued, “About 42 bikes and 4 taxis were damaged during the orgy of violence. All of us in the neighbourhood were up on our feet. Islamists were about to enter the Puja pandal but their plan was thwarted by the arrival of the police.”
বোমা ইট মারা হচ্ছে তাই জন্য পুলিশকেও পালাতে হচ্ছে পরিস্থিতি এতটাই খারাপ যে গণতন্ত্রের মুখে কালি মাখিয়ে দিয়েছে লক্ষ্মী পূজার দিন। pic.twitter.com/M7Xnu14pak
— PRITAM SUR (@pritamsur1) October 9, 2022
This however did not deter the Islamists to continue the orgy of violence on Sunday (October 9) evening as well. Dhanuk, a resident of Mominpore and the Secretary of the Harijan Durgosave Committee, did not anticipate the unprecedented violence. But the writing on the wall was clear.
Laying the fertile ground for violence
In a telephonic conversation, he told Opindia that the local Muslims had put up an Islamic flag in the middle of the road, ahead of the Eid-Milad-Un-Nabi celebrations.
“It was put up opposite the Puja pandal – something that had never happened before. The Islamic flag was placed in such a way that if any heavy vehicle passed through that road, then, it would either dislodge the flag or tear it,” he had emphasised.
On Sharad Purnima, when Bengali Hindus celebrate Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, Mominpura, a suburb of Kolkata, is witnessing communal violence. Kolkata police abandoned the Ekbalpore police station, perhaps on the orders of Home Minister Mamata Banerjee, while Islamists were on rampage. pic.twitter.com/hdNCd5wpLg
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 9, 2022
The Secretary of the Harijan Durgosave Committee did not mind the little inconvenience caused due to the unexpected placement of the flag, without realising that a fertile ground for violence was being laid.
A Kolkata-based journalist, informed us under the condition of anonymity, that Hindus in Mominpore faced the wrath of Islamists for not dismantling the Durga Puja pandals before Milad-un-Nabi.
“Muslims in the area have been pressuring them to remove the pandal and stop the conduct of Lakshmi Puja,” he informed. “In West Bengal, wherever Durga Puja is celebrated, it is mandatory to worship Goddess Lakshmi at the same site,” the journalist added.
No takers of Hindu victimhood, a system compromised to benefit perpetrators
The Hindu worshippers refused to give in to the Islamic diktat. The result was the targeted destruction of shops, vehicles and houses belonging to the community. The damage is irreparable, with little to no hope of respite from the local police and the government.
“I suffered the maximum damage,” a woman draped in a yellow saree lamented. From the visuals, it could be seen that her bed was completely charred in the arson attack.
“Dada, they have taken away all my belongings. Nothing is left,” she emphasised. “The wall, to which the TV is affixed, is damaged in the bombing. Look at the condition of the fan,” the woman highlighted. The tears of the Hindu residents had no takers.
Nonetheless, the Islamist narrative that a ‘Muslim flag was removed’ took the centre stage. This is despite the fact that the Hindu side has contested the allegation repeatedly.
Under its pretext, a frenzied Muslim mob ambushed the Ekbalpore police station and made fiery speeches. As expected, no cop was anywhere in sight. This is the plight of Hindus in the State of West Bengal, who are now left at the mercy of such helpless police personnel.
Ekbalpur Police Station seems to be captured by hooligans.
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) October 9, 2022
Mamata Police have abandoned the Station for the time being, out of fear. @chief_west if @CPKolkata is not up to the task, please seek CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) deployment.@HMOIndia kindly intervene 🙏 pic.twitter.com/3RbaCVDoLz
Anti-Hindu violence in the State of West Bengal
Islamists in West Bengal have been playing by their standard playbook of peddling disinformation and building a foundation for orchestrating the violence. The apathy of the Mamata Banerjee government and police inaction has only bolstered their courage.
In April this year, a frenzied Muslim mob pelted stones at a Ram Navami procession near Fazir Bazar on GT Road in Howrah. The procession was organised by Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Durga Bahini.
Several Hindus were injured during the attack and were shifted to hospitals for treatment. Some of them were seriously injured due to stone pelting. West Bengal BJYM Vice President Priyanka Sharma accused the police of lathi-charging the Hindu worshippers and taking no action against the Islamists.
After Banaskantha #Gujarat Peacefuls attacked on #Ramanavami Shobha Yatra 👇 in #Howrah, West Bengal.
— Sushil Sancheti 🇮🇳 (@SushilSancheti9) April 10, 2022
Hindus organise Iftar parties for them in our temples 🛕 and they pelt stones at us during the Ram Navami.
Still we don’t learn. 😡 pic.twitter.com/hksl2p6KiU
Later in June, Islamists blocked the National Highway connecting Howrah and Kolkata, thereby resulting in traffic woes and public inconvenience.
The demonstration came days after the BJP suspended its spokesperson Nupur Sharma over alleged ‘blasphemous’ remarks against Prophet Muhammad. The protestors, dressed in skull caps and lungi, created a ruckus on NH116.
Dekhun nh6 ankurhati k puro sosane porinoti korcha
— akshay pal (@akshayp34731606) June 9, 2022
Prosno aktai police ki korcha ???
#westBengal# ankurhati# west Bengal police pic.twitter.com/7e290vrf6o
They yelled Islamist slogans and burnt tyres. In videos that have now surfaced on social media, dark smoke could be seen engulfing the skies. Reportedly, the blockade began from Nibra (Kona Expressway-NH16 junction) at around 10:30 am and ended at 9:30 pm.
Located at about 12 km from the second Howrah bridge, it extended up to the AJC Bose Road in Kolkata. On June 10, the Islamists disrupted the vehicular movement in the Park Circus area in Kolkata.
Following the Friday prayers (Jumma Namaz), Islamists began gathering on the road and demonstrating against the remarks made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
Similar scenes were seen in Kolkata’s twin city Howrah, where Muslim mobs resorted to violence and vandalism. They burnt down vehicles and police booths during the violent protests.
পুলিশ প্রশাসন কোথায় কি হচ্ছে
— Priyanka Sharma 🇮🇳 (@Priyankabjym) June 10, 2022
গতকাল হাওড়ার অঙ্কুরহাটি তে 11 ঘন্টা পথ অবরোধ করে রাখল, আজকে পার্ক সার্কাসে, আর উলুবেড়িয়া তে, একই ভাবে লুঙ্গী বাহিনি জমায়েত করে সাধারণ মানুষকে সমস্যায় ফেলছে
কোথায় পশ্চিমবঙ্গের আইন শাসন ?
কেন বারবার সাধারণ মানুষকে এই ধরনের সমস্যার সম্মুখীন হবে? pic.twitter.com/OkqioWsmYn
On the same night, a frenzied mob of Muslim men ambushed the Beladanga police station in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal.
As per reports, they hurled stones and bricks at the police station and demanded the arrest of a Hindu girl named Aishwani, who had asked rioters in the State to migrate to nearby Islamic countries.
Forced by circumstances, the cops had to fire tear gas shells to disperse the violent mob and pacify the situation. The girl was subsequently detained by the police.
Instead of acting against the Islamists, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had famously asked them to disrupt public life in other states instead.
She remarked, “Why should we suffer due to the communal politics of some with an aim for narrow political gains? Go protest in UP, Gujarat…states where BJP is in power. But they are not in power in Bengal, so don’t do this for publicity in here.”
Anti-Hindu antecedents of West Bengal CM
The anti-Hindu antecedents of Mamata Banerjee and her appeasement of the Muslim community cannot be ignored in the context of the anti-Hindu violence in West Bengal.
The West Bengal CM had courted controversy in May this year after she was heard saying, “Hum Kafir nahin hai“. While addressing a crowd on the occasion of Eid, she said, “Let them do what they want. We are not scared. We are not cowards. We are not ‘Kafir’.”
“We fight. We know how to fight. We will fight against them. We will finish them,” she continued. Netizens were in disbelief as the video went viral. Many expressed their concern over a sitting CM using the word in a public address, given that it is often used by Islamists to dehumanise non-Muslims.
#WATCH | West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses people at Red Road in Kolkata on the occasion of #EidUlFitr
— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2022
“Good days will come…we are not scared, we know how to fight,” says Mamata Banerjee pic.twitter.com/t09QLyOGZG
Recently, she called for a ‘jihad’ against the BJP, a radical Islamist term that calls for the annihilation of the disbelievers of Allah. Mamata Banerjee later defended her remark by claiming that it meant ‘strong protest’ in Banga.
West Bengal CM @MamataOfficial talks about post-poll violence in Bengal & the #AgnipathScheme. Hear out what she said. #ConclaveEast22 #WestBengal #MamataBanerjee | @Sardesairajdeep
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) July 4, 2022
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/BAmpJ8Jjb4 pic.twitter.com/K3Po9PK8x7
Under her leadership, goons associated with the Trinamool Congress wreaked havoc on Hindu BJP workers in the aftermath of the 2021 West Bengal Vidhan Sabha polls.
Mamata Banerjee had also launched her “Khela Hobe Diwas’ on exactly the same day when Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah of the Muslim League had launched the horrific “Direct Action Day” against Hindus in 1946.
None of this is a coincidence, neither the stone pelting at the Ram Navami procession nor the carnage in Mominpore. The violence against Hindus will continue unabated with the systemic support of the State apparatus.
