Team News Riveting
Kolkata, April 11
If the mob was powered with bombs while clashing with the security personnel in Cooch Behar’s Sitalkuchi on Saturday, no one should carry even an iota of doubt who provoked them?
Since the para-military forces landed in West Bengal to ensure free and fair assembly elections, only one political party had been dead against the deployment. And when the goons attacked the security personnel and tried to loot the weapons, it was crystal clear at whose command it could have been carried out. After all, making an attempt to loot the guns of an armed security person is no childish act! The retaliating action killed four persons including a BJP worker.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah blamed the West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee for the incident and said telling people to target Central security forces provoked the clash in Cooch Behar’s Sitalkuchi on Saturday.
“Mamata Banerjee asked people to gherao Central forces and that instigated people to attack the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) in Sitalkuchi. Even now, attempts are being made to politicise the killings,” Shah said at a rally in Santipur on Sunday. “I request the people of Bengal to celebrate the festival of democracy peacefully in the remaining phases,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee came out with the technical reports and termed the security personnel’s retaliation as “genocide” claiming the victims were “sprayed with bullets in the upper part of the body – on the chest and neck”.
Speaking at a press conference in Siliguri on Sunday morning, Banerjee said: “This is genocide. They have fired just like a spray. They should have fired below the waist. Photographs show that they were shot in the upper part of the body – on the chest and at the neck”. She added that the CISF is not trained for mob control, and they wanted to suppress facts, which is why they have not allowed political leaders to enter into the area for 72 hours.
Claiming that she spoke with families of victims over video call from Siliguri, Mamata quoted one Manjur Mian, a relative of one of the victims Hamidul Mian. But she reportedly failed to name the others. One of the victims was a BJP worker.
Anand Burman, a BJP worker, was killed during the 4th phase of the elections in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress claims that BJP is behind the murder but the BJP said that Anand Burman was their polling agent at booth number 85 in Pathantuli area of Sitalkuchi. As per reports, he was shot dead outside the booth.
Jan Ki Baat founder Pradeep Bhandari has shared an eyewitness testimony of the incident that appears to bolster BJP’s version of events. According to the eyewitness, Anand Burman was standing in line to register vote when the murder took place.
The eyewitness says in the video, “Anand had gone to vote, they had come with bombs. He got scared after seeing them. He was shot while he was returning home.” He said that there was no history of personal enmity and it was only due to the fact that he worked for the BJP while the others for Trinamool Congress.
