BJP legislator expresses apprehension of attack on Ram Navami procession in Bengal's Malda

Kolkata, April 5 (IANS) Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury, the BJP legislator from the English Bazar Assembly constituency in minority-dominated Malda district of West Bengal, on Saturday said that she had written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah expressing apprehensions of an attack on Ram Navami processions in the district on Sunday.

She has also expressed apprehension about the similar attacks on Ram Navami processions at the Malda-adjacent and minority-dominated Murshidabad district on Sunday.

"Amid recent attacks on the people of a particular community by people from another community both at Mothabari in Malda and Beldanga in Murshidabad, I am apprehending attacks on the Ram Navami procession in these two districts on Sunday. Since the state police have limited forces, they often assign duties to civic volunteers. "So I have written to the Prime Minister and Union home minister so that the central police forces personnel are kept on standby in both these districts on Sunday," she said on Saturday.

She also said that every year, Ram Navami is celebrated in a major way within her constituency of English Bazar.

"Similarly, there will be major celebrations and processions on Sunday as well. But following what had happened at Mothabari and Beldanga in the recent past, there are enough reasons for tension. Civic volunteers are not enough to keep situations under control. That is why I have written to the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister so that CAPF personnel are kept on stand-by and also combat forces are deployed in the area,” Mitra Chaudhury said.

Speaking on the occasion, she also claimed that in certain pockets in the districts which are close to the international borders with Bangladesh, certain cells are active whose main task is to brainwash the underage minors.

"They are deliberately targeting underage minors for brainwashing so that even if they are arrested their punishments will be much lesser under the juvenile act. The main brains of these cells are operating from Jammu & Kashmir. But their associates are active in these districts of West Bengal," Mitra Chaudhury said.

Last month, two senior officials of the state police also cautioned that they have received specific intelligence inputs on some vested interests trying to instigate violence, especially targeting the Ram Navami celebration.

--IANS

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