Tension escalates during Bangla Bandh called by BJP

Kolkata: There is heavy tension in different pockets of West Bengal over the 12-hour general strike called by the BJP on Wednesday with inci...

Kolkata: There is heavy tension in different pockets of West Bengal over the 12-hour general strike called by the BJP on Wednesday with incidents of firing being reported.

In Bhatpara, North 24 Parganas district, firing took place, following which a local BJP supporter Rabi Singh, got bullet injuries and had to be hospitalised.

Former Lok Sabha member from Barrackpore and BJP leader Arjun Singh claimed that the injured supporter along with some of his associates were stopped on the road by Trinamool Congress activists and were fired upon.

“The ruling party activists have been creating terror in the area since morning to foil the strike, which is spontaneously supported by common people,” Singh said. However, the local ruling party leadership has denied the charges.

In Cooch Behar district, police detained two BJP legislators, Malati Rava Roy from Tufanganj and Nikhil Ranjan Dey from Cooch Behar (South), as they along with their associates were protesting at the bus depot of the North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC).

The police were seen dragging and pushing them into the prison van. As their associates protested a minor scuffle broke out between the cops and the striking supporters.

In Muchipara area of North Kolkata, a scuffle broke out between the BJP and Trinamool Congress supporters after the local BJP councillor Sajal Ghosh, along with his associates, started moving around the area in the morning requesting the local shop-owners to keep their establishments closed in support of the strike.

Soon the local Trinamool Congress supporters came down to the streets opposing the movement of Ghosh and his associates, which led to the scuffle between the two groups. A police contingent reached the spot and separated the two groups.

The BJP has called the 12-hour Bandh to protest against the police action on the youths during the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ rally on Tuesday. The rally was called to protest against the rape and murder of an intern at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata earlier this month.