One of prime accused in murder of father-son in riot-hit Murshidabad held
KOLKATA, April 20: Calling upon the West Bengal government to “act urgently” to address the grievances of the riot-hit people of Murshidabad district, particularly women, National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar on Sunday said the panel is preparing a report which will be submitted soon to the Centre with copies to top state officials.
Speaking with reporters at a Kolkata hotel, Rahatkar said that in the past two days, she and other panel members met many women, their families and children, and the torture and suffering they faced was “beyond imagination, having left a deep scar in their minds which need to be healed and addressed on an urgent basis with a humanitarian approach”.
Advocating confidence-building measures by the state administration, she said that the responsibility of bringing peace lies with the state government.
The NCW chief said the commission is preparing a report incorporating the views of all those women, who narrated their ordeal and credited forces like the BSF for saving their lives and honour.
The report will be submitted to the Centre and copies will be sent to the DGP and chief secretary of West Bengal soon, she said.
To a question about women demanding a Border Security Force (BSF) camp in the affected area, she said, “Yes that is what many of them said. There is an air of fear and insecurity in the area. We will certainly incorporate their views in our report.”
“They are our own, they are daughters of this state. What they went through is beyond words. They saw the houses, which they built with their hard-earned money, get shattered and burnt down; they were assaulted, threatened and driven out, women were tortured and chased away from their homes, from the villages they lived in for years. None went to meet them in all those days. They were asking me what their fault was,” she said.
“The pain of the women who were dragged from their homes, brutally attacked and threatened in the most inhuman manner is unimaginable. Some were even told to send their daughters to be raped,” she said.
The NCW chief said that she heard about incidents of a woman running for her life with her four-day-old baby and newlyweds fleeing their houses with their belongings getting looted during the violence.
About allegations by TMC leaders that the commission was acting at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre and questions about why the panel did not visit Manipur and other BJP-ruled states when such incidents took place there in the past, she said, “All I will say is that I don’t want to indulge in politics. I came here to be on the side of tortured sisters.” Urging those who make such comments to “not divert people from the main issue”, she added, “Why don’t these critics themselves meet those women and stand with them to feel their agony and what they felt. Aren’t they our own people?” “Why don’t these critics try to find the answer about why this (violence) happened? You need to understand their pain,” she said.
She wondered why the State Women’s Commission had not yet visited the affected areas yet.
On Friday, the NCW team visited relief camps in Malda’s Baishnabnagar sheltering the displaced riot-affected people of adjacent Murshidabad district.
Three people were killed and hundreds rendered homeless during the clashes, which occurred in Muslim-majority Murshidabad, amid protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act.
ONE ARRESTED
One of the prime accused in the murder of a man and his son in violence-hit Murshidabad district in West Bengal was arrested, police said on Sunday.
This was the fourth arrest in the killing of the two at Jafrabad in Shamsherganj, a senior officer said.
The arrested person, identified as Ziaul Sheikh, a resident of Sulitala Purbapara, the neighbouring village of Jafrabad, has been on the run since the crime took place on April 12.
Sheikh was arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of the West Bengal Police along with the Special Investigating Team (SIT) from his hideout in Chopra in Uttar Dinajpur district on Saturday, he said.
“This person is one of the prime accused who had conspired and instigated a mob to carry out vandalism at the residence of the deceased and killed Haragobindo Das and his son Chandan Das on April 12,” the officer told PTI.
The police have all the evidence, CCTV footage, and his mobile phone tower location to prove his presence at the crime spot on April 12, he said.
Earlier, the police had arrested two brothers, Kalu Nadar and Dildar, and Inzmam Ul Haque in connection with their involvement in the killing of the two.
Kalu was arrested from Murarai in Birbhum district, his brother Dildar was held from the Bangladesh border area under the Suti Police Station jurisdiction.
The third accused was apprehended from Suripara, a neighbouring village of Jafrabad. (PTI)