Abhishek leads protest rally in Purulia; intellectuals join outcry

Kolkata: Abhishek Banerjee, All India Trinamool Youth Congress president and party's MP, led a rally in Purulia on Sunday protesting against the killing of five Bengalis at Tinsukia district in Assam.

It may be mentioned that Banerjee held a rally on Friday in Kolkata protesting against the same. From there, he had demanded an inquiry by the Supreme Court into the Assam massacre. In Kolkata, he had addressed a rally at Hazra Road intersection.

The Trinamool Congress organised protest marches all across the state protesting against the incident and on Saturday, Banerjee led a protest rally in Bankura district.

After leading the mammoth rally at Bankura, he went to Purulia where he led another huge procession protesting against the same incident.

He was carrying a black flag and slammed the BJP for such gruesome incidents in which people are getting killed for hailing from a particular community.

Banerjee addressed the rally and urged people to raise their voices against such incidents of violence.

Meanwhile, intellectuals from the state protested against the killing of the five Bengalis in Assam.

According to them, exclusion of 40 lakh people in the final draft of the Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) created an unstable situation and such incidents are an outcome of the same.

Intellectuals including Subodh Sarkar, Suvaprasanna, Abhirup Sarkar and others held a meeting in front of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Poet Subodh Sarkar said: "Five Bengalis have been shot dead in Assam and no reason behind it has surfaced yet. It had been a tradition that Assamese and Bengalis stayed together. Then who are these people trying to create fissures between them? We know who are they and I would like to tell them that they are playing with fire and they have to stop doing the same immediately."

Sarkar also added: "This is inhuman. We cannot believe that a human being can do such a thing. There was a good relation between Assamese and Bengalis. But the trouble began since the NRC issue cropped up and now it is going to an extreme level."

Painter Suvaprasanna condemned the attack on the poor people and asserted that Bengal would stood by them in such hour.

Singer Pratul Mukhopadhyay, film personality Dipankar Dey were among others present at the protest.