Kolkata: For the second time in four days, central Kolkata wore the look of a battlefield as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters clashed with the police which stopped their march to Lalbazar, the city police headquarters.
The BJP on Thursday took out rallies from various parts of Kolkata to protest against the administration filing criminal cases against its leaders, which the party says are politically motivated, and to demand the arrest of a Muslim preacher who was ousted as imam of the Tipu Sultan mosque in Kolkata.
After Monday’s clashes with supporters of Left parties, the police were more restrained on Thursday while dealing with hostile BJP supporters. Even so, they had to baton charge protesters and at least 15 of them sustained injuries and were taken to hospital. The protesters vandalised two police vehicles.
Three rallies led by prominent BJP leaders were to converge at Lalbazar, but as usual, the police stopped them far from their destination with barricades. Protesters turned violent as they tried to cross down the barricades. The police alleged that the protesters started to throw stones and hurled a bomb across a barricade. The BJP denied the charge.
In the skirmish that followed, the police fired water cannons and tear gas shells before baton-charging protestors. Two key officers of the Kolkata Police charged with dealing with the situation said the police had strict instruction to use minimum force and to make sure no journalist was attacked.
The police charged only when they were attacked, these officers said, asking not to be named. A television channel showed a journalist rescuing a policeman from being assaulted by protestors.
Despite the police caution not to repeat Monday’s assault on journalists, a few were again attacked again. Earlier in the day, the police distributed neon-colour jackets among journalists so that they could be easily identified in the melee.
The police in Kolkata said 141 protesters were arrested and at least 20 police personnel injured in the skirmishes.
Several top BJP leaders such as Dilip Ghosh, the state president for West Bengal, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, former state president Rahul Sinha and Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly, who led the rallies, were arrested.
The BJP has decided to lodge a complaint with the governor against alleged police excesses.
Referring to the rallies this week, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said a bunch of miscreants and the misguided were fighting to establish themselves as the key opposition party in West Bengal and in the process innocent police personnel were getting beaten up.