Locals tell 바카라 that deliberate spread of rumours with a communal angle and prompt mobilisation of teenagers reflects planning
On the evening of April 11, following the Friday namaaz, a few hundred Muslims gathered outside the Samsherganj police station in Dhulian town of Murshidabad district. They were to take out a rally protesting the enactment of the new Waqf law. Muslims comprise four-fifths of the town's population and two-thirds of the district. They marched for the Old Dak Bungalow crossing, a prominent throughfare in the town near the National Highway 34.
On their way, while crossing Ghoshpara, a neighbourhood where many Hindus live, chaos broke out over the allegation that stones were pelted at the rally from the Hindu neighbourhood of Ghoshpara, where preparations for the next day라이브 바카라 Hanuman Jayanti rally were going on.
Within minutes, many more Muslim youths from the nearby areas flooded the scene. The crowd at Duk Bungalow crossing was told that Hindus had attacked two teenagers from Tinpakuria, named Badshah Sheikh and Jiaul Sheikh, at Ghoshpara.
Vandalism and looting of roadside properties started. At the Dak Bungalow crossing, the protesters and vandals clashed with the police. At a stretch from Ghoshpara to Ratanpur on the main road, many Hindu-owned shops were ransacked and looted. A Durga temple at Ghoshpara and a Kali temple at Ratanpur on the main road were vandalised. Stones were pelted at the glass windows of Hindu houses.
“By that time, some of the original participants of the rally had fled the scene and a new crowd had taken control,” says a Muslim shopkeeper near Ratanpur, one of the original participants.
Speaking to 바카라, many locals of the area, including Muslims, insist that some people with criminal intentions had hatched a plan in advance; rumours with a communal angle had been spread deliberately and crowds of predominantly teenage Muslims were mobilised in advance. They also blame police inaction and intelligence failure. Some suspect sabotage by a section of the ruling party and the administration.
Locals highlight that tension had been rising in Farakka, Samsherganj, Suti and Jalangi in Murshidabad district over the past three days over the anti-Waqf law protests. The Jalangi block development office had been vandalised the day before. Street violence happened in Farakka.
In Dhulian, Ghoshpara has been a sensitive area. Milan Ghosh, a prominent local leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi라이브 바카라 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), lives there. The locality has many Hindutva activists associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP라이브 바카라 ideological-organisational parent. Yet, there was minimal police presence at Ghoshpara라이브 바카라 entrance from the main road when the rally passed on Friday, say locals.
“The original rally that started on Friday evening was relatively modest. But the massive crowd of Muslim boys and young men that gathered within minutes of the news or rumour of stone pelting at Ghoshpara spread makes it clear that a conspiracy had been hatched in advance,” says a local schoolteacher associated with the state라이브 바카라 ruling party, chief minister Mamata Banerjee라이브 바카라 Trinamool Congress (TMC). He suspects some people or a force with ulterior motives had employed local criminals.
Following the vandalism, the police and the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel reportedly raided the Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods of Tinpakuria and Hijaltala late in the evening and night in search of the suspects and culprits. Locals alleged police excesses during such raids.
On April 12, around 9 in the morning, people of the Muslim-dominated Tarbagan neighbourhood in Dhulian town of Murshidabad district heard that a group of BSF personnel were marching into their locality along with activists of the RSS.
The people who came out of their homes could not find any trace of security forces or Hindutva activists anywhere around. However, as a local tells 바카라, requesting anonymity, some people started telling the gathering to move in a particular direction, where they claimed the BSF and Hindutva cadres were already vandalising Muslim homes.
“As the crowd moved about 200 meters ahead, we still saw no trace of anyone. Yet, some people started telling the gathering to move further ahead. Thus, within a few minutes, a large crowd from Tarbagan had been drawn out of their locality into the main road, bang opposite the entrance of the Hindu-dominated Ghoshpara,” says the young Muslim man.
Due to the tension already prevailing in Dhulian since the day before, a contingent of BSF personnel was guarding the entrance to the Ghosh para. Some Hindus were also standing next to them. The crowd from the Tarbagan was now standing face to face with the BSF. As some of the gathering of Muslims pelted stones at the BSF, some stones allegedly came flying from the side of the Hindus.
Soon, the area in front of Banichand Agarwala Balika Vidyalaya turned into a battlefield. Muslims allege that either the BSF or the Hindus opened fire at them, injuring at least four on the spot—Mahiuddin Sheikh, Sujauddin Sheikh, Hassan Ali and Idris Ali. Rumours spread fast that Hindus and BSF had opened fire on Muslims and killed some.
While this street fight was going on on Dhulian라이브 바카라 main road, Bidhan Chandra Road, groups of Muslim boys and young men struck terror inside the mixed-population localities of Zafrabad, Ranipur, Betbona and Dighori, selectively targeting Hindu households. Not only did they vandalise and loot Hindu households and shops, but they also killed two Hindus—Haragobinda Das and his son, Chandan—dragging them out of their home at Zafrabad.
At Palpara and Raiganj in the Lalpur area of Ward 16, crowds of a few dozen Muslims banged on the doors of Hindu houses, threw empty glass bottles on their roofs, and vandalised two shops owned by Hindus. At Dighori Saha para, the two-storied house of Bhajahari Saha, Prasenjit Saha라이브 바카라 bicycle shop and Dasarath Saha라이브 바카라 grocery shop were attacked, vandalised, and looted. The shop on the ground floor of Gajen Saha라이브 바카라 house belonged to Basarat Sheikh. The vandals looted it too when they attacked the house.
At Ranipul, Uttam Roy라이브 바카라 house was attacked, and the shop was set on fire. The Lakshmi temple, Pradipta Pal and Biswajit Pal라이브 바카라 grocery shops, Shibas Pal라이브 바카라 e-rickshaw, Sanjit Sarkar라이브 바카라 Bolero car, and Subrata Pal라이브 바카라 variety store were set afire.
All these families left the village in the evening on Saturday when the police came along with the BSF personnel for the rescue.
Meanwhile, on the main road, Hindus vandalised shops owned by Muslims at the Shib Mandir Bazaar area. Some Muslims were allegedly thrashed at the Gorur Haat area. At night, the police and the BSF reportedly raided the Muslim-dominated localities of Tarbagan, Hijaltala, Sulitala and Kamat, from where the police suspected most of the vandals came.
Besides, Ezaj Ahmed, a teenager who suffered bullet injuries during a clash between protesters and security forces on the national highway in Suti on Friday, died on Saturday.
At Hijaltala, from where the police arrested five persons on Saturday night and Sunday, five houses and two shops belonging to Muslims stand bearing signs of fire; their furniture gutted. They allege that a 22-year-old, Shamsher Nadab, suffered bullet injuries and is undergoing treatment in Kolkata. They blame the attack on 'Hindutva activists clad in BSF uniforms.'
“Why would the BSF set fire to houses and shops and loot jewellery and cash? Moreover, some of them wore sandals. How can security personnel wear sandals?” asks Giyas Nadab, who alleges his grocery shop was burnt during the ‘raid’ and cash and jewellery looted from his home. Muslima Khatun alleges that the 'people clad in BSF uniform' looted cash, jewellery and set fire to a bed bought as a gift to her daughter, who is going to become a mother.
A local police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity admitted that the security forces raided Hijaltala but ruled out setting fire to any house or having anyone outside the security forces with them.
Khalilur Rhaman, the TMC MP from Jangupur in Murshidabad, spoke of conspiracies to create unrest in the state but did not want to specify. “The police are carrying out unbiased investigations and taking stern actions. None will be spared,” Rahman says.
As Dhulian violence and deaths drew national attention, Governor CV Ananda Bose visited Farakka and Samsherganj and met the Hindu victims, and so did a team from the National Commission for Women. Muslims questioned their neutrality, highlighting how they did not visit a single Muslim family who bore the brunt of the violence. Leaders of the Left, the Congress and the TMC have visited victims from both sides.
Most of the Hindus who had left their homes following Saturday라이브 바카라 violence and took shelter at a high school in Malda and some at their relatives’ places, returned by April 21. However, an uneasy calm prevails even as different political parties and social organisations take up peace restoration initiatives.
As of the end of the month, the police have arrested over 200 persons in connection with over 100 cases filed. Four have been arrested in connection with the twin murder. The arrests make it evident that those involved in the violence were locals.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to visit Dhulian in the first week of May. Whether she faces any agitation during her visit remains to be seen, but Hindus in several areas of Shamserganj, Suti and Farakka remain agitated.
The next of kin of the killed father-son duo refused the government's offer of compensation of Rs 10 lakh each. Instead, they accepted a similar amount from the BJP, the state's main opposition party.