No chance of Pulwama rerun in Bengal, says Bratya Basu
BALURGHAT: State minister and Trinamool leader Bratya Basu made a scathing attack on the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Tuesday.
Addressing a poll campaign for party candidate Arpita Ghosh, Basu said there was no chance of a terror attack on the Army convoy like the Pulwama incident in the soil of Bengal. He termed the incident as an example of failure of Centre's intelligence department.
"This is my earnest appeal to the terrorists if residing in the district to repeat the Pulwama incident at Farakka Bridge ignoring the security measures of the state government. I am requesting anyone to cross the bridge in a scorpion car with 300 kg of high-intensity explosives just the way it happened in Pulwama," he said.
Basu said the incident was the result of carelessness by the Central government.
"It is quite surprising how the terror attack took place when there is at least one army base camp in every 30 feet and one police check-post after every 40 feet approximately," he said.
He further said everyone knew the road had been under security protection and at the same time there had been several restrictions to get entry particularly when a military convoy was crossing the road.
"It is shocking. The military convoy comprising 78 vehicles was crossing the road while an organised terrorist group rammed a scorpion car loaded with more than 300 kg of high-intensity explosives leaving 40 dead," he said.
Bratya said following the attack, the Modi government conducted the Balakot surgical strike but surprisingly neither the Prime Minister nor anyone of his minister came up with what exactly happened following the airstrikes.
"We are yet to receive any information regarding the matter. We want to know how many terrorists have been killed in the Balakot surgical strike. In a statement, Amit Shah said 250 terrorists were killed but it was not official and his statement differed with others," Bratya said.
Comparing Narendra Modi with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Bajpayee, he said: "After the Kargil war in 1999, the Bajpayee government had officially made it clear how many terrorists were killed but this government has failed to provide the answer to the questions of common public after the airstrike. Modi and his followers are only interested to retain power for the second time. All the BJP leaders are eying on Bengal to grab as many as seats for the upcoming polls but I can assure him and his supporters that we will win all 42 seats."
Apart from Basu, former PWD minister and local leader Shankar Chakraborty, outgoing Balurghat municipality chairman Rajen Shill along with many theatre personalities from Kolkata took part in the poll campaign.
