Bengal is sitting on powder keg before the coming Assembly elections, intelligence reports received by the State police say. According to the reports, political parties, particularly the Trinamool Congress has stock-piled huge quantities of arms and ammunition in districts.
Most of these arms are coming from Munger in Bihar, Manipur, Nagaland and Nepal. While Munger is primarily exporting one-shotters, 7mm and 9mm pistols — “not in hundreds but in thousands,” more sophisticated arms like AK-47 are coming in from Manipur, Nepal and Nagaland, a senior official in the State police says.
A one-shotter is normally sold for `700-1000, while 7 and 9mm pieces can be had for `2000-`3000, said the official. Guns are also being manufactured in makeshift workshops in places like Hooghly, Howrah, Birbhum, Malda, Nurshidabad, Burdwan and the two 24 Parganas.
Apart from this, the political parties have employed thousands of history-sheeters for manufacturing crude bombs. They are working overtime in the boondocks of Birbhum, Nadia South and North 24 Parganas, East Midanpore and Hooghly, the officials citing intelligence reports says adding that “the whole police contingent of Birbhum district does not have as much stock-pile of arms and ammunition as the political goons there.”
The recent raid and recovery of huge quantity of arms and ammunition from a workshop at Bhadreshwar in Hooghly district shows how the situation is worsening by the day.
On whether the presence of Central force has any effect on the arms mafia, the official answers in the negative saying like in 2014 general elections the CPF is being used only for what he says “ornamental route march.”
The senior IPS officer says the arms are being smuggled from Munger via Jamui of Jharkhand into Birbhum via Asansol. A second route originates in Nepal and runs through Raxaul and parts of northern Bihar into Bengal.
The official said Government ambulances were being used in many cases to transport bombs and arms particularly in Birbhum and Malda. “The bigger worry this time round is how the arms are being smuggled into North Bengal a comparatively peaceful region” the officer says.
In this region the ruling Trinamool Congress has recently faced reverses in the civic and panchayat elections. “The way the police ignored the Monday’s bomb blast in Murshidabad that killed two persons while making the crudes only shows how seriously they are taking it” OP Mishra a Pradesh Congress leader said. Two Trinamool supporters were blown off while they were making crude in a paddy field at Kandi in Murshidabad.
“If the Election Commission does not take immediate steps to seal the borders or at least conduct intense checking then there could be heavy bloodshed in Bengal particularly because the Opposition parties are also gearing up to take up the challenge” a CPI(M) State committee member said adding “we have no other way but to resist.”