"Lives are at stake," says Bengal BJP MLA, seeks deployment of central forces after violence in Hooghly

Kolkata: BJP MLA Biman Gosh on Sunday wrote to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose seeking their intervention and the deployment of central forces in West Bengal after the violence erupted in Hooghly during Ram Navami celebrations.

In his letters to them, Bhartiya Janta Party MLA Biman Gosh said that violence on the Ram Navami procession near Rishra Bara Masjid on Sunday was an act of pre-planned vandalism. On Thursday also, several vehicles were set on fire after two groups clashed in Howrah amid Ram Navami celebrations. During the procession, the rioters vandalized public and private properties and set vehicles on fire.
"The Ram Navami procession on reaching Rishra Bara Masjid faced a deliberate and pre-planned attack including stone pelting use of swords and bombs," he said in the letter.

BJP MLA further accused police of being inactive when violence was taking place during the Ram Navami procession.
"The police force was completely inactive when the people attending the procession were beaten up and started charging the Hindus in the procession," he wrote.

"Now police have become overactive to book the Hindus in place of protecting them. People who attended the procession are now abandoning their houses and their lives are at stake," he added.
He further requested the deployment of central armed police forces in the state.

"I strongly demand the intervention of the West Bengal Governor and Home Minister and deployment of central armed police forces," he said.
BJP MLA also said that he was also attacked by a group on Sunday in Rishra, Hooghly.

He took to Twitter and said," Today I was attacked by Jihadi Group in Rishra, Hooghly. I sincerely request the Governor of West Bengal & Central Home Minister to act immediately, in order to control the deteriorating Law and Order condition of Rishra, Hooghly."
In this regard, West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar also on Sunday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah over violence in the state during Ram Navami celebrations.

"In continuation to my earlier letter dated March 31 regarding the communal attack on the processions of Ram Navami in Howrah and Dalkhola, it is further informed that the attack has not yet been stopped and is occurring in different parts of West Bengal," Majumdar wrote in his letter to Shah. (ANI)