Basirhat: Life in West Bengal’s Basirhat and its surrounding areas is slowly limping back to normal after communal violence rocked it for over a week.
Tension is still simmering below the surface, but this time it is about how the police and administration handled the situation.
More than a week has passed since 65-year-old Kartik Ghosh was hacked in broad daylight at Paikpara, six km from Basirhat town, in front of many eyewitnesses. A fatally injured Ghosh, while being taken to the hosiptal, is reported to have told his sons about the identity of his attackers.
Two days after he succumbed to the injuries, his younger son, Probhasish, filed an FIR naming about 15 people. Yet, even now, the family has no clue whether anyone has been arrested in the case. None of them has yet been questioned by the police.
“The culprits must be arrested. How can they stay outside the police net? This is such a big incident. And I have given the names. At least the first few names are the ones who directly attacked my father. My father recognised them. The police must know," Probhasish said.
Some 25 km away, in Baduria where the trouble first began, Mohammad Ismail Akunji is yet to recover from the wounds he sustained on his skull and his back when police raided his brother’s shop and beat him up.
His fault was that he was sitting at the shop close to the point where villagers put up a road block in protest against a controversial social media post.
“The police suddenly sprung into action, raided our shop and started beating me up. I pleaded with them to let me go but they didn’t listen. They dragged me to the police van and threatened to dump me in the river," he said.
They even refused him water when he asked for it, he said.
Now, people living in the area apprehend further police action. Sufian Akunji, a villager, said, “After sundown, men are fleeing their homes in apprehension of police raids. The children start crying in fear. I have never seen people in our village living out despite having their own homes. We are all so scared."
On 2nd July a mob of outsiders attacked a house in Rudrapur, Baduria, in the dead of the night, pillaged it and set it ablaze in front of a hopelessly outnumbered police force. Their target was a class XI student whose social media post which lit the fuse in an already tense region.
Suleman Mondal, the secretary of the local mosque, said the police failed to stop the rampaging mob.
“The police were barely prepared for this kind of a backlash. Compared to the massive mob, those on duty were too few in number. The arson could have been stopped if the police had anticipated the possibility," he said.
The Moylakhola market of Basirhat is now showing signs of life after it was attacked a week ago by an armed mob of outsiders which became a flashpoint of subsequent tension. Locals, however, admitted that the scars could last forever.
Arindam Mullick, a Basirhat resident, said, “Peace has returned to Basirhat because of the spontaneous efforts of the local people. No political party played any role in restoring order. The administration helped, but political parties stayed out."
Even as a semblance of normalcy has begun to return to Basirhat, people are tentative and continue to live in fear of further backlashes.
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