KOLKATA, July 8: Workers of the BJP and the TMC youth wing clashed here on Wednesday during a protest march by the Mamata Banerjee-led party over the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Baruipur, prompting police personnel to baton charge to control the situation.
The rally, which was organised by youth workers of the Mamata Banerjee-aligned TMC after securing a green signal from the Calcutta High Court, was repeatedly obstructed by BJP workers who raised “thief” slogans and even tried to set up human barricades along the protest march route along the Hazra Road.
During the course of the rally which originated from Ballygunge Phari in southern Kolkata, agitated workers from both sides were seen getting engaged in fist fights, with security forces intervening with a baton charge to disperse and disengage the brawlers.
The agitating BJP workers maintained that the TMC had “no right” to organise a protest rally on the Baruipur incident, alleging that the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government “shielded criminals perpetrating crimes against women, shamed victims” and often trivialised them as “minor incidents”, charges that were refuted by the protesters.
The clashes, which began from the rally’s originating point and continued in phases all through the roughly three-kilometre rally route, reached a climactic high at its termination point at Hazra Crossing, not far from the former chief minister’s residence, with police having a tough time in stopping the chaos from spiralling out of control.
Condemning the attack on TMC workers, Banerjee alleged that the BJP carried out a “planned rampage”, assaulting men and women alike, with “the city police standing by as mute spectators”.
“We had the court’s permission to conduct this rally. Even then, they assaulted our women. Many of our workers are bleeding badly, and I had to come out of my house to rescue them. They took out a bike rally in the morning near my residence and threatened me. They kept playing DJs all through the rally route and even snatched our hand mics for which we had the court’s leave,” she said.
“Police are acting like BJP cadres, I am sorry to say,” she alleged. (PTI)
