A massive protest march was led by the leadership of the
Left Front, including former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and
chairman Biman Bose, on the streets of the city on Wednesday 9th of January condemning
the recent attack on senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader
Abdur Razzak Molla and the subsequent violence by supporters of the
Trinamool Congress.
Senior leaders of the Left
parties held up a banner and led the march while an overwhelming crowd
walked behind them. Their numbers were so large that the car in which
Mr. Bhattacharjee came to the protest could not make its way to the area
where it started off from and he could only join it midway.
Waving
red flags, banners and posters, they chanted slogans against the
Trinamool Congress government for failing to take action against the
perpetrators of the attack on Mr. Molla on Sunday and the violence
witnessed at Bamanghata in the Bhangar area of the State’s South 24
Parganas district on Tuesday.
The violence in the
area occurred even as both parties are gearing up for the upcoming rural
polls and the developments are sure to influence the campaign, not only
in Bhangar but also elsewhere in the State. Mr.
Molla, who is yet to recover from his injuries and is presently admitted
to a private hospital in the city, was assaulted in the Bhangar area
allegedly by supporters of the Trinamool Congress. According to the
CPI(M) MLA, the attack was led by former Trinamool Congress MLA Arabul
Islam, who also delivered the first blow.
The
Trinamool Congress leadership has whole-heartedly backed Mr. Islam and
it was in protest against the failure of the police to arrest him that a
demonstration had been organised outside the office of the district’s
Superintendent of Police on Tuesday. Supporters of
the party were on the way to this demonstration when they were again
attacked, this time by armed activists, allegedly of the Trinamool
Congress. The Left Front claimed that at least 13 of their supporters
sustained bullet injuries and 14 vehicles were set ablaze.
Allegations
that at least ten of the injured were prevented from being taken to
hospital have only made matters worse. Significantly, the party has also
alleged that in an attempt to downplay the attack on Mr. Molla, the
hospital authorities were being pressurised by the Trinamool Congress
government to discharge him to substantiate the party’s claims that he
was “faking it.”
Leader of the Opposition in the
West Bengal Assembly Surya Kanta Mishra has pointed out that even as the
hospital authorities told journalists that he was fit to be discharged
and was only being kept at the hospital on his family’s insistence, a
fracture in his ribs was detected during an MRI scan.
Tese
claims of supporters and leaders being denied medical attention
following the incident of political violence comes in the wake of the
scenes in the West Bengal Assembly last month when MLAs of the Left
Front and the Trinamool Congress clashed. Left Front MLAs were merely
administered first aid and sent away from the State-run SSKM hospital,
although it was later detected that some of them had suffered serious
injuries.
CPI (M) held a demonstration outside Banga Bhawan to protest
against the assault on left leaders and activists in Bamanghata, in the
outskirts of Kolkata by Trinamool miscreants. Hundreds of demonstrators
shouted slogans condemning the attack.
The demonstration was
addressed by central secretariat members Com Joginder Sharma, Com Hannan
Mollah and Com Nilotpal Basu and Com Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau
member of CPI (M).
The incident is the latest instance of the
continuing violence by Trinamool Congress against CPI (M), the Left
parties and the opposition and the democratic rights of individuals are
under constant threat in the State. speakers demanded immediate
arrest of TMC goons responsible for the incident; and reiterated that
CPI (M) would defeat all such anti-democratic designs.
CPI-M Tripura State committee organised demonstrations across the state to protest
attacks on party members in West Bengal, including on veteran
legislator Abdur Rezzak Mollah, allegedly by Trinamool Congress
activists.
"Thousands of people, including women and party
leaders, organised demonstration and protest rallies across Tripura to
condemn the series of attacks on the CPI-M leaders and members in West
Bengal by the ruling Trinamool Congress," Tripura CPI-M state secretary
Bijan Dhar told reporters.
