North 24 Parganas: A BJP-led delegation on Tuesday was stopped en route to Sandeshkhali in Basirhat. The local police stopped BJP state president Sukanta Mazumder and other party workers from visiting the violent-hit areas. Many BJP workers have been detained and have been injured after a face off with the cops. They were stopped near the Superintendent of Police office of Basirhat. According to our sources on the ground, the police have resorted to lathicharging in a bid to disperse BJP workers marching towards Sandeshkhali. Sukanta Majumdar was attacked while his security personnel was injured. 

According to our sources, the police were picking bricks from the streets and throwing them back at the protesters. Mazumder is organising a sit-in protest in front of the SP office, demanding the immediate release of the protestors, who the BJP believes were held without any reason. Thousands of BJP workers have joined Mazumder's protest from the surrounding areas of Minakhan and other adjacent areas in North 24 Parganas.

Sandeshkhali has turned into a fortress as the police have barricaded the entire area to prevent BJP leaders from visiting the affected sites and talking to the protesters. There were incidents of stone-pelting reported in Basirhat with the police pelting stones back at the protesters, according to our sources. 

Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee government suffered a huge setback as Calcutta High Court repealed the Section 144 order in Sandeshkhali. Several BJP leaders, including Union Minister Smriti Irani, told Republic that prohibitory orders under Section 144 was put in place to stop the horror of Sandeshkhali from spilling out. Pronouncing the order, Justice Jay Sengupta expressed distress over nothing being done to the accused while the protesters are being put behind bars.

This is Day 8 of the violent protests led by locals against the regional Trinamool Congress brass to demand the arrest of missing TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his associates for spreading terror. Narrating ordeal of horror, women in Sandeshkhali told Republic that many from Trinamool would visit their houses and pick them up in the middle of the night. “They would keep us there in the party offices till the time they were satisfied. They would even told our husbands that we were their property,” the women revealed on camera. In another disturbing revelation, few women said that they were identified by their shakha polas (bangles worn by Hindu married women) and targeted along religious lines. Unspeakable acts of violence have emerged with several farmers complaining TMC leaders of snatching their lands with the connivance of local officials.

On Monday, both SC/ST commission and National Commission of Women (NCW) have taken suo-motu cognisance of the case and have written to the Bengal administration, asking them of the steps taken to protect the victims. The SC/ST commission is slated to visit the violent-prone areas.