Police booth set ablaze by mob at West Bengal-Assam border following accident

In a violent incident, an angry mob set a police booth on fire at the West Bengal-Assam border on Friday night. According to officials, the booth was set ablaze by the mob following an accident. The incident happened at Bhanga Pakri on the border of the Alipurduar and Coochbehar districts of West Bengal. The police booth along the Assam-West Bengal border was set on fire by an angry mob who terrorised the area on Friday night. The booth set by the West Bengal police at the border was used for Naka checking. According to officials, vehicles from both states are checked here. On Friday, an accident happened in front of the booth, which in turn formed an angry mob. The mob vandalised the booth and then set it on fire, officials said.

A local youth was involved in the accident, however, there was no official confirmation about the casualties in the event. Following the incident, locals blocked the national highway connecting the two states in protest. The blocking of the Assam-West Bengal border road and vandalizing of the checking booth led to a traffic snarl at the busy stretch late in the night and Saturday morning.

The Nadia road accident

Earlier last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed condolences to the families of the deceased in a tragic road accident in West Bengal's Nadia. A total of 18 people were killed and five others injured during a funeral procession when a vehicle carrying the remains of the dead rammed into a stationary truck on November 28. As per police officials, low visibility owing to fog may have led to the accident. According to the PTI report, six others succumbed to their injuries on the way to the hospital or during treatment. Local people and the police shifted the injured to Shaktinagar General Hospital, where doctors, after examining their condition, referred the critical ones to another medical institution in Krishnanagar. One of those injured said he and others were heading to Nabadwip cremation ground from Chakdah when the accident took place. In a separate incident on the same week, a lorry laden with boulders overturned in Siliguri in West Bengal's Darjeeling district, killing four people and injuring at least three others. 

Image: PTI/ UNSPLASH