Kolkata: Mamata govt thrashes Hindus for protesting outside Bangladesh mission against the brutal lynching of Dipu Chandra Das

Hindus protesting the killing of minorities in Bangladesh were attacked by police outside the country's mission.
Police clashed with the Hindu protestors, (Source: PTI/Deccan Herald)

On 23rd December (Tuesday), a large-scale demonstration against the brutal attacks on minorities in Bangladesh were carried out in Kolkata. Bongiyo Hindu Jagaran organised the Hindu Hunkar Padayatra agitation, which began in the city’s Sealdah neighbourhood and tried to make its way to the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission office in the Beckbagan area.

However, the police erected barricades to stop the demonstrators and then used baton charges to remove them when they attempted to move past the barriers and closer to the Deputy High Commission’s office. 12 protesters were taken into custody as the clashes resulted in injuries to several individuals.

An official stated, “The situation in front of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission has been brought under control. Those who attempted to gather there illegally have been removed. So far, 12 people have been arrested in the area. These are preventive arrests.” He added that a large police contingent remained deployed near the commission to ensure the security of the diplomatic staff and to resist further attempts to lay siege to the premises.

A protestor voiced, “The police here are acting like they want to protect those who are lynching our brothers in Bangladesh. They showed no such enthusiasm when Hindus were lynched in Murshidabad earlier this year.”

The participants were waving saffron flags and raising slogans denouncing the anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh. They chanted “safety for Hindus in Bangladesh” and “Hindu Hindu Bhai Bhai” as they criticised the lynching of a Hindu man named Dipu Chandra Das. They called for protection for Hindus in Bangladesh and action against those accountable for his death.

BJP responds to the police action on Hindu protestors

The West Bengal unit of Bharatiya Janata Party took to social media to condemn the police action on protesters. It drew a comparison with the anti-Waqf Amendment Act protests organised by Muslims and pointed out that they were “able to take over Kolkata and wreak havoc on the lives of Bengalis earlier this year.” However, protests by Hindus faced a severe crackdown by the authorities.

“Mamata police allowed the first group to protest and take Kolkata hostage. Mamata police brutally assaulted men and women in the second group. The message is clear. Your voice is heard in West Bengal only if you are her vote bank. If you are a Bengali Hindu, your voice is stifled, and you are brutally assaulted, all because of your name,” the party highlighted.

The party earlier wrote, “Mamata’s police did nothing when Humayun Kabir raised the Babri Masjid issue, but they started beating Hindu saints simply for protesting against what happened to Hindus in Bangladesh, even injuring their skulls. She is not even pretending to care about Hindus anymore. She desperately wants to turn West Bengal into West Bangladesh.”

At a press conference, Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, told reporters that the police reaction proved the lack of distinction between the governments of Mamata Banerjee and Mohammad Yunus in Bangladesh. He also posted videos of the wounded demonstrators on social media and informed that “over a dozen injured, countless arrested, all for daring to be Hindu in our own homeland.”

The BJP leader referred to the cops as “Mamata Banerjee’s uniformed Goons” and charged, “They unleashed hell. Barricades smashed, lathis swung like swords on defenceless protesters, women and elders dragged like criminals into prison vans, and blood spilt on Kolkata’s streets.” He described Mamta Banerjee as the “appeasement queen who seems to be a well-wisher of the Yunus Regime.” He further accused that the police action was executed under her directive, as she labelled this peaceful and just protest as “illegal.”

“This same Mamata government rolls out the red carpet for hordes of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators. They flood our borders unchecked, grab our jobs, our lands, vote illegally, and the Mamata administration bends over backwards to settle them in every nook of West Bengal. Anything to facilitate them to help swell the TMC’s vote bank. But when Bengali Hindus cry out for the Hindu community across the border? Lathis & arrests,” Adhikari lashed out.

He also went to meet the wounded protestors and noted, “I can only feel their pain and discomfort after such unnecessary brutality. I have assured them of any possible help that they might require and pray for their quick recovery. Mamata Banerjee is on the path of Adharma; she will have to repent sooner or later.”

Notably, Adhikari had also spearheaded a protest joined by fellow party members and Hindus in response to the attack on Hindus in Bangladesh.

Furthermore, a similar agitation against the killings of Hindus in Bangladesh took place outside the country’s High Commission in New Delhi. The Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad led the event, in which attendees expressed concerns regarding attacks on Hindus and the destruction of their religious sites in the neighbouring nation. 

Written by OpIndia Staff
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