The BJP on Monday fired fresh salvos against the Trinamool Congress Government for protecting trans-border fake-currency and opium racket after a fact-finding mission comprising Central leaders of the saffron outfit were stopped from entering the riot-torn regions of Malda district.
The fact-finding team comprising party MPs SS Ahluwalia, Bhupendra Yadav and VD Ram were stopped from proceeding towards riot-torn Kaliachak from Malda station where they disembarked early on Monday morning.
They were detained and subsequently sent off to Kolkata even as the senior district officials said prohibitory orders had been clamped at Kaliachak-Sujapur areas which had seen rampant violence last Sunday when members of a particular community went on a rampage torching three dozen vehicles including those belonging to the police and BSF and a police station besides attacking members of another community, sources said.
They were protesting against a reported adverse comment made by a Hindutva leader against their Prophet.
The BJP leaders who were detained at Malda Station launched a scathing attack against the Trinamool Government for what they said patronising fake-currency and opium racket and providing shelter to rioters who not only attacked the men in uniform but also members of a different community. The delegation was constituted by BJP president Amit Shah.
Incidentally CPI(M) MP Md Salim was also stopped on the same ground from entering Kaliachak on Monday.
“The purpose of the visit was to console the people and restore their confidence that something like this will not happen in future. Due to pressure from the State Government the district administration said that we cannot go there as Section 144 has been imposed. We are not here to incite anyone. We are law-abiding citizens and senior MPs but the officials said we are public figures and our appearance will create problem and the normalcy they had brought will break down,” Ahluwalia said.
The BJP leaders also criticized the Government for letting the issue pass as a mere law and order problem between the BSF and the locals wondering “how we can call a violence a mere law and order problem when people in uniform including women were seen running for their lives after changing lest they were identified!” The leaders also alleged how members of a particular community attacked those from others creating a mass terror like situation.
What happened on January 3 was a criminal act with a specific view to destroy evidence preserved inside Kaliachak police station, the leaders said adding the locals involved in fake currency racket and opium trade had felt threatened as there was news of NIA picking up evidences from Kaliachak police station.
The Police Station was torched to destroy evidence collected painstakingly by the police and the BSF they maintained informing Malda accounted for about 80 percent of country’s fake currency.
Curiously, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier said what happened in Malda was an affair between the BSF and the locals and there was no communal issue attached.