Kolkata: Murshidabad district police have arrested the prime accused in the attack on journalists in Beldanga, following days of unrest in the area.
According to Murshidabad Superintendent of Police Kumar Sunny Raj, around 30 persons have been arrested so far in connection with vandalism and violence in Beldanga, while four persons were arrested specifically for assaulting media personnel.
Among those arrested, nine have been remanded to police custody for 10 days, while the remaining accused have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Trinamool Congress MP Yusuf Pathan visited Beldanga on Sunday and met the father of Alauddin Sheikh, a migrant labourer who died under unnatural circumstances in Jharkhand.
“I strongly deplore the harassment and attacks on poor Bengali-speaking migrant workers from Murshidabad and other parts of Bengal who go outside the state in search of livelihood,” Pathan told reporters after meeting the family.
“Chief Minister and our party supremo Mamata Banerjee and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, and other MPs and MLAs are taking up the issue with the administration of respective states. We are also flagging the issue regularly. I am pledging my support to the victim families,” he said. Responding to Opposition allegations that he had failed to visit families of migrant workers who were allegedly killed or harassed in other states, Pathan dismissed the charge as “propaganda”.
“It is an attempt by the opposition to mislead people. I have been constantly monitoring every case. I have been constantly monitoring every case, and our supremo Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee are getting regular feedback,” he said.
Meanwhile, armed state police personnel, accompanied by Rapid Action Force, conducted route marches in the violence-hit area in Beldanga on Sunday, even as shops were closed and roads wore a deserted look following back-to-back road blockades, stone pelting and assault on journalists on two consecutive days. Murshidabad SP Kumar Sunny Raj monitored the situation as police personnel patrolled the town’s main roads and bylanes and fanned out into nearby villages where an eerie calm prevailed.
A senior police officer said strict vigil was being maintained to prevent any gathering or assembly of people on main thoroughfares
and bylanes. Violence erupted on Friday morning and also on Saturday, during protests over the alleged unnatural death of a local migrant worker in Jharkhand.