The Bengal administration has issued an 'alert statement' for the citizens asking them to keep peace and communal harmony in the face of Bangladesh crisis.
Issuing an official statement, the Bengal Police urged the people not to pay heed to rumors and desist from posting provocative statements on the social media, the police administration said, that "the state administration is alert and vigilant. Keep calm and maintain peace. Given the current situation in neighbouring Bangladesh, we have noticed a few posts and videos on social media that may create discord and unrest."
The communiqué from the police administration came hours after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to the people with "folded hands" to keep a communally peaceful atmosphere in the face of political turmoil across the River Padma.
"I appeal to all the people of Bengal to maintain peace and ignore provocations … This is my appeal to the people of all the communities with folded hands to remain calm and not engage in communal behavior … act responsibly as the hour demands you to do so … I request the citizens not to take the law into their own hands," Banerjee said.
Appealing to the political parties to desist from uploading contents in the social media that could ignite tension Banerjee said that there were some political parties which were uploading disturbing posts and asked them from doing things that could disrupt peace and communal harmony."The situation in Bangladesh is disturbing and we too are disturbed about that … but there is no point in dragging any issue to this side (of the border) … no one should write or post anything that may disturb peace here," she said urging the politicians to "discharge their responsibility" by not posting "irresponsible things."
The Chief Minister would not make any opinionated statement about the developments on the other side of the border.
The Left too appealed to the people not to step into communal traps laid down by vested interests. "It is the matter of a different country and our national Government and its Foreign Department must be looking into it … so there is not much to say about this except the fact that this is the time to exercise restraint and show political maturity," CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakrabarty said.
Bengal incidentally shares the longest border with Bangladesh with a vast portion of it remaining either unfenced or covered by rivers that mostly flow through Sunderbans.
"It is very difficult to keep a check in these porous borders as there are areas where a mohalla or even a house or a pond is divided between India and Bangladesh. There are places where the front portion of the house is in India whereas the stable or the mango orchard is in Bangladesh … so how do you keep a check, particularly when there is virtually no policing in that country," said a former DIG of the Border Security Force adding the security forces and the State police were acting with "full coordination."
Reports said that the BSF officials were holding meetings with the villagers in the border areas to strengthen the intelligence network so that people from the other part of the border cannot sneak in easily. "Night vigil cameras have been fixed and the jawans are doing overtime duty to patrol the border," the former official said.