Local TMC leaders involved in ‘planning’ and ‘execution’ held a meet in the house of a TMC councillor of Khidirpore area.
NEW DELHI: The Mominpur-Ekbalpur communal violence that rocked the city of Kolkata earlier last week and just days after the city celebrated its biggest festival–the Durga Puja–was a result of growing friction between a certain section of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders in West Bengal, sources have said.
Informed sources from the city that this correspondent spoke to said that some local leaders of the TMC were involved in the rioting and violence that took place in the Mominpur-Ekbalpur area of Kolkata on the night of Lakshmi Puja. The same sources also told this correspondent that the local TMC leaders were allegedly close to Kolkata Corporation Mayor and TMC’s Cabinet Minister Firhad Hakim. “There is a lot of friction between top leaders of the TMC and this Mominpur-Ekbalpur area comes under one of the top leaders of the TMC. There is a power tussle also happening within that party and from the people involved in the communal violence, it seemed he was in the know of the matter and that he did not try to stop it. Maybe it was his way of showing to his bosses that he still holds enough influence over this particular community and that the party cannot keep him at bay,” a local source from the Mominpur area told The Sunday Guardian.
Sources also claimed that the local TMC leaders allegedly involved in the “planning” and “execution” held a meeting in the house of a TMC councillor of the Khidirpore area before the mob went on a rampage and burnt multiple houses, cars and motorbikes.
Police sources that this newspaper spoke to said that a huge number of firearms, bombs and even some hand grenades were used in the rioting. Police sources also told this correspondent that seeing the number of bombs and firearms used in the violence, they prima facie believe that it was not a spontaneous rioting but “must have been planned” and that they will be investigating the matter.
A BJP activist from Kolkata has submitted a written complaint to the Kolkata police naming TMC leaders like Md. Ghulam Ashraf, Shahbaz Alam (close associate of Firhad Hakim), Nizamuddin Shams (TMC Councillor) and TMC Cabinet Minister Firhad Hakim, who is also the local MLA of the Kolkata Port area, where the violence broke out, for their involvement in the rioting.
BJP’s leader of the opposition in the Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, has hinted at the involvement of “jihadi” elements like the Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) in the rioting that took place in Kolkata earlier this week. Adhikari has also demanded an NIA (National Investigation Agency) probe into the violence that left several injured, including policemen, as he said that the amount of bombs, hand grenades and firearms used in the violence cannot be of a local nature and it has to be an organised “jihadi” group to perpetrate such a huge level of arson and violence.
However, senior spokesperson of the NIA that The Sunday Guardian spoke to said that the NIA has not yet taken up the investigation of the Kolkata violence and has not received any intimation as on Friday morning for taking up the investigation. However, sources indicate that the NIA could take up the investigation into the violence as several sections of the Explosive Substance Act have been added into the five FIRs that have been registered by the Kolkata police. The Kolkata police has also recovered at least 20 live bombs and over six live crude bombs from the violence-marred area. The violence targeting the Hindu community of the Mominpur-Ekbalpur area broke out on the night of Lakshmi Puja in Kolkata’s Khidirpore/Kolkata port area where Hindu households were targeted, and houses torched. Local eyewitnesses claim that hundreds of mobs targeted Hindu households, burnt them, and forced many families to flee from the area. According to estimates, more than 100 Hindu families have fled from their houses in the area, fearing further violence and are yet to return to their houses.
Some people, including women, were hurt and are currently undergoing treatment in the hospital. Some police personnel were also hurt in the violence. The Mominpur police station was also taken over by the mobs which led to police personnel fleeing from the area, leaving the residents to fend for themselves at least for two hours, before the force came in to contain the violence.
According to some locals, the violence broke out after the minority community demanded that the Durga Puja pandal erected by the Dalit community (Harijan Durga Utsav Committee) of the area be dismantled owing to the Milad-un-Nabi (birthday of Prophet Mohammad) to which the Hindu community disagreed as, according to customs, Lakshmi Puja is to be held on the same place where Durga Puja was held.
Some others claimed that a flag put up on the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi was brought down by some locals, while some claimed that the flag was put on the Durga pandal that was erected in the area.
The Mominpur-Ekbalpur area is a minority dominated area in the Kolkata district where a handful of Hindu people live which include the migrant Bihari population and some local Bengalis. Earlier this week, the Kolkata Police, however, said that the area now remains peaceful and that heavy police presence, including picketing, has been set up in the entire area, while Section 144 was imposed till Friday.
The Calcutta High Court had also taken cognizance of the matter and had asked the Kolkata Police and the DGP of West Bengal police to set up an SIT (Special Investigation Team) to investigate the matter. The West Bengal police has already set up a 13-member SIT who will probe all angles into the violence and submit a report to the Calcutta High Court.