8 arrested Over Sandeshkhali Violence, Internet Suspended & Section 144 Imposed After 3 Days Of Unrest

Eight people have been arrested, including former CPIM MLA Nirapada Haldar on Friday in connection with the arson and violence that rocked Sandeshkhali in North 24 Paraganas district. The violence first started on Wednesday following a protest by locals demanding the arrest of absconding TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and continued for over 72 hours till Friday afternoon. Section 144 has been imposed in several villages under Sandeshkhali along with heavy deployment of police forces. Police personnel were seen miking on Friday morning urging people to avoid any kind of gathering to maintain law and order. Three FIRs have been registered by police against 117 people. Internet services have been suspended in parts of North 24 Paraganas district after three days of unrest that also saw protesters led by women demonstrate on the road, also demanding the arrest of TMC block president Shibu Hazra and TMC anchal president Uttam Haldar, both reportedly close associates of Sheikh.

“At present, the situation is under control. Investigation is underway in all the cases and every complaint will be probed but if anyone takes the law into their own hands then the law will take its course. No one will be spared,” said West Bengal ADG Law and Order Manoj Verma on Friday, a day that witnessed an outraged mob set ablaze properties linked to Shibu Hazra and Uttam Haldar.

On Friday morning, things turned ugly after police had arrested five people for the violence on Wednesday and Thursday. Angry protestors demanding the immediate release of the accused took to the streets armed with bamboo sticks and other farming tools. Protestors even tried to gherao the Sandeshkhali police station but faced resistance from forces. Locals have been alleging wrongdoings on the part of Hazra and Sardar, alleging that the duo has usurped funds from social schemes and encroached upon agricultural land. Local Trinamool MLA Sukumar Mahata has admitted that Sardar hadn’t paid villagers the money against land taken on lease for fisheries and has also assured that “dues would be cleared soon”.

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has hit out at Mamata Banerjee government calling the developments a “Human Rights violation in Sandeshkhali”. Criticising the imposition of Section 144 in eight gram panchayats under Sandeshkhali, Adhikari called it the state government’s desperate measure of misusing police powers to silence the protest. “People are being detained for no fault of theirs including minors. The protesters are being forced to stay at home and teams comprising members of Mamata Police & TMC goons are attacking their homes and targeting them individually”, said Adhikari, further adding that Section 144 is imposed to restrict “the Leaders of Opposition Parties to visit Sandeshkhali so that they can't witness the horror or communicate with the villagers”. He has urged the state Governor to visit the affected areas and has called for the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission.

Trinamool Congress has hit back at BJP and CPIM, calling the Sandeshkhali violence an attempt to hijack public discourse overshadowing the state budget in which several social schemes were either announced or the existing ones were enhanced. “Police will take every necessary action to maintain law and order. But opposition parties are trying to play politics and thus we fear that they are trying to take public attention away from the social schemes announced by Mamata Banerjee govt in the state budget. All central funds have been deliberately stalled to hurt the state economy and they expected that the state finance would paralyse. But Mamata Banerjee has shown how to her nothing matters more than the people. Her government would pay 21 lakh MNREGA beneficiaries from state coffers whose payments have been held up by the central government for over two years in an inhuman manner. BJP and CPIM feel that such a move will decimate them in the Lok Sabha elections and thus they are trying to take public attention away using the incident that happened in one village in Sandeshkhali”, said Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, TMC MP on Friday.