JOIN USLeaving the trouble-torn area of Kaliachak in Malda district of West Bengal virtually off-limits, the state government on Monday stopped a delegation of BJP MPs from entering the area.
The area had seen violence on January 3 when a mob of nearly one lakh demonstrators set the local police station on fire, damaging property and records.
The district administration detained the BJP delegation at Malda station and prevented them from traveling to Kaliachak near the Indo-Bangladesh border. The delegation, which was on a mission to find out what transpired on January 3, included BJP MPs, S S Ahluwalia, Bhupendra Yadav, and Ram Vilas Vedanti, along with state leaders Krishanu Mitra and Joy Banerjee. District officials escorted them to a Kolkata-bound train.
After returning to Kolkata, Ahluwalia told reporters that they would be traveling to Delhi and will raise the matter with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the BJP national leadership. According to him, district magistrate, Sharad Dwivedi, and Superintendent of Police, Prasun Banerjee, told them that the team’s presence at Kaliachak could fuel further tension and cause yet another law and order situation.
“District officials claimed Section 144 was in place and that we can’t enter the area. We were cordoned off as soon as we got off the train at Malda around 6:30 am. We were supposed to take a car to Kaliachak. The DM and SP stopped us at the station and prevented us from walking out of the station,” Ahluwalia told reporters.
Kaliachak, around 35 km from Malda, is notoriously famous as a centre of cross-border smuggling of fake Indian currency and narcotics.
The NIA and Intelligence Bureau have been keeping an eye on the area for some time after finding out that much of forged notes enter India through this border town. Intelligence agencies believe the violence on January 3 was orchestrated by smuggling racket kingpins to destroy police records.