The protests over the killing of a garment factory worker in Bangladesh escalated in Kolkata on Tuesday, with police resorting to a lathicharge to disperse demonstrators who attempted to march to the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in the Beckbagan area, triggering clashes and traffic disruptions.
On December 18, Dipu Chandra Das was lynched by a mob and his body set on fire accusing him of blasphemy in Baluka in Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
Tension flared when protesters tried to move towards the Deputy High Commission, a high-security zone, and were stopped by police leading to subsequent clash between the agitators and the latter.
The protest march was called by several Sangh Parivar organisations, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Hindu Jagran Manch, in the wake of Dipu Das’s murder in Mymensingh.
“The procession reached the Beckbagan area, but police intercepted the protesters before they could reach the gates of the Deputy High Commission, which is a high-security zone,” said an on-duty police official.
Protesters said that they were attempting to submit a memorandum to the Deputy High Commission. However, as police blocked their advance, clashes broke out. Police eventually resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the crowd during which several protesters were allegedly injured. According to the sources, at least 20 protesters were injured during the clash, however, the police have not confirmed any such detail.
Several protesters were also detained and taken away in prison vans.
Later, BJP leaders arrived at the spot. Tamoghna Ghosh, the BJP’s North Kolkata district president, said they were protesting against the police action and standing in solidarity with the Hindutva organisations.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said that he won’t allow the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission to function in Kolkata if he was not granted permission for a meeting with the country’s envoy here.
“Today, in the heart of Kolkata, near the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission, a group of Sanatanis including revered sadhus gathered peacefully to raise their voices against the atrocities raining down on our Hindu brothers and sisters in Bangladesh. The brutal lynching of Dipu Das in Mymensingh is just the latest bloodstain on the conscience of that nation, where temples are torched, women are violated, and minorities are hunted like animals. These protesters led by the selfless warriors of VHP, ABVP and Hindu Jagran Manch, marched with nothing but placards, demanding justice and solidarity for the persecuted. But what did Mamata Banerjee’s ‘Uniformed Goons’ do? They unleashed hell,” Adhikari said in a post on X.
The post read: “Barricades smashed, lathis swung … on defenseless protesters, women and elders dragged like criminals into prison vans, and blood spilled on Kolkata’s streets. Over a dozen injured, countless arrested all for daring to be Hindu in our own homeland. Chaos reigned, and the police, under orders from the ‘Appeasement Queen’ herself who seems to be a well-wisher of the Yunus Regime, declared this peaceful and righteous protest as ‘illegal’”.
“This same Mamata government rolls out the RED CARPET for hordes of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators. They flood our borders unchecked, grab our jobs, our lands, vote illegally and Mamata administration bends over backwards to settle them in every nook of West Bengal. Anything to facilitate them to help swell the TMC’s vote bank ! But when Bengali Hindus cry out for the Hindu community across the border? lathis & arrests…,” read the post by the BJP leader.
Refuting the “misleading claims”, the South East Division of Kolkata Police took to X and wrote: “Regarding the incident at Beckbagan, several misleading claims are being circulated on social media. Assertions that the protest was entirely peaceful and that police action was unprovoked are incorrect.”
Hitting out at the BJP, the Trinamool Congress posted on X: “Have you wondered why the otherwise hyper-active, social-media-obsessed @narendramodi has maintained a deafening silence on the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das in Bangladesh? Could it be because of his cosy equations with Muhammad Yunus? While the Prime Minister looks the other way, BJP’s Bengal unit is indulging in performative outrage, desperately trying to inflame communal tensions”.
“The irony is staggering. The same Suvendu Adhikari, now spewing divisive rhetoric to provoke unrest in Bengal, had just months ago praised the Yunus government, claiming it was doing a better job than the democratically elected government of West Bengal. So let’s ask the obvious question. When a BJP leader applauds a foreign regime while undermining an elected Indian government, is that not the very definition of anti-national conduct?” read the post.
“Tensions flared in Kolkata as Hindu activists, including sadhus and Hindu organisations like VHP protested outside the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission against ongoing attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, particularly the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das. Demonstrators attempted to march and gherao the Mission but were stopped by police barricades, leading to scuffles and reported lathicharge that injured several protesters, including monks in saffron robes. Authorities cited security concerns amid heightened India-Bangladesh diplomatic strains,” VHP’s Sourish Mukherjee posted on his X.
The protest led to traffic congestion in parts of Park Circus and surrounding areas. While traffic movement from Park Circus towards the Deputy High Commission continued intermittently, the road from the Commission towards the Park Circus crossing remained closed for a prolonged period.