Teenagers attend rally as a mark of respect

Kolkata: Teenaged boys and girls, who had not been born on July 21, 1993, when 13 people were gunned down by the police, turned up in large numbers to pay respect to the martyrs on Saturday.

Thirteen people were killed when police had opened fire during a march to the Writers' Building organised by the state Youth Congress, led by none other than Mamata Banerjee, on July 21 in 1993 demanding production of voters' identity card mandatory in elections.

2018 marks the 25th year of the incident but the wound still seems fresh in the memory of many who had witnessed innocent youths being killed with such brutality in brought daylight and have gone on to narrate the incident to their next generations.

The younger generation has witnessed the massive development work carried out by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and hence, besides paying respect to the martyrs, another purpose behind attending the rally has been immense respect for the Chief Minister for her "pro-people" policies and unrelenting service to the masses.

The boys and girls, who later came to know about the sacrifice of those 13 people, attended the rally on Saturday. Most of them are students of different colleges and they turned up at Esplanade as this is the biggest platform from where respect is given to the martyrs.

"We would like to express our gratitude to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee for organising the rally from where respect is paid to the martyrs, whose sacrifice has brought transparency in the electoral process by making the production of voters' cards mandatory in elections," said Samar Gayen.

Samar, who is a first-year BCom. student of Surendranath College, said: "I like the ideology of our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as she fights for the rights of common people and always raises her voice whenever any anti-people step is taken."

Some students of the Chemistry department of St. Paul's Cathedral Mission College also attended the Martyrs' Day rally. Sourav Chowdhury, a first year BSc student of the college, said: "We came to know about the incident of July 21 in 1993 from our parents and seniors. We also know how their sacrifice yielded results in the electoral process. So we came to pay our respects to the martyrs."

Similarly, 18-year-old Anas Sheikh from Purbasthali in Burdwan came to attend the rally.