GUWAHATI : A eight-member team of All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) leaders comprising six MPs , one minister and one MLA from West Bengal who was kept confined inside Silchar Airport in the state by Assam Police on their arrival on Thursday afternoon, was taken into preventive detention later in the evening after they refuse to return from the airport.
Assam director general of police (DGP) , Kuladhar Saikai informed here on Thursday night that all the eight members of the Trinamool Congress delegation had been taken into prevention detention in Silchar.
The detention comes even as three FIRs were lodged against TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Assam on allegations of inflammatory and hate speeches, while the Assam TMC chief quit the party, citing dissatisfaction at the TMC’s reaction to the NRC issue in Assam.
The TMC team was to hold meetings in Silchar town with cross sections of people over the issue of publication of final draft updated NRC in Assam.
The DG of Assam Police Kuladhar Saikia said the Trinamool Congress delegation had been barred from coming out of Silchar airport as Section 144 Cr PC was imposed in Silchar to maintain law and order and the team had been given prior information by administration about the prohibition in force there.
The Trinamool Congress team included six party MPs namely Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghose, Mamata Thakur, Ratna De Nag and Kakoli Ghose Dastidar besides West Bengal government’s minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mohua Moitra, party sources here informed.
The DGP said a team of senior police officials including the ADG (Law and Order) Mukesh Agarwala and Deputy Commissioner of Cachar district went to Silchar airport to inform Trinamool Congress team of leaders that they would not be allowed to come out of the airport as Section 144 Cr PC was in force in Silchar and to hold any public meeting.
The team was, in fact, informed yesterday and this morning too by the district administration that they would not be allowed to visit Silchar in the greater interest of maintaining law and order the DGP said adding that the prohibition was imposed because of inflammatory and baseless speeches being aired by certain groups and individuals against the ongoing process of NRC updating in the state under the supervision of the Supreme Court of India.
The DGP informed that two women police constables were injured during scuffles with women members of TMC inside Silchar airport. The injured constables required medical treatment.
Hundreds of TMC supporters shouted anti-government slogans outside the airport.
Congress legislator from Assam, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, who was one of the invitees to the TMC meeting said he was at the airport and that the TMC delegation was not allowed to come out.
“My personal view is that the decision by the Assam government not allowing the TMC delegates to come out and meet the people is wrong. This was our chance to tell them that whatever TMC and Mamata Banerjee have been saying about NRC in Assam is all wrong,” Purkayastha said.
“We could have shown them the real picture that there is absolute peace after NRC publication. They would have known that the 40 lakh people left out of the draft NRC are not just from one linguistic or religious community. They are not considered as illegal migrants. Everybody is getting a chance to file claims,” he added.
Meanwhile, several Trinamool Congress leaders including the Assam state president of the party, Dwipen Pathak today resigned from the primary membership of the TMC in protest against party chief Mamata Banerjee’s inflammatory campaign against the NRC updating process in Assam.
“I have quit from primary membership of the TMC in protest against Mamata Banerjee’s baseless and motivated campaign against NRC updating process with. I condemn her attempt to trigger clashes between Assamese and Bengali people in the state to derive political mileage in West Bengal. We can’t allow her to make Assam a scapegoat for getting political mileage in West Bengal,” the quitting TMC state leader Pathak said.
Meanwhile, administration imposed Section 144 Cr PC in Guwahati police commissionerate area too from August 1 in view of the scheduled programmes of All India Tranamool Congress team of MPS and MLAs from West Bengal in the city on August 3.