Several injured, police cars torched: ISF workers clash with cops as Waqf protest in Bengal turns violent again

The clash erupted when police stopped ISF supporters from heading towards Ramlila Maidan in central Kolkata to attend an anti-Waqf (Amendment) Act rally addressed by party leader and Bhangar MLA Naushad Siddique.

Kolkata: A march against the new Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, led to a clash between protesters and the police personnel in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Monday, although normalcy started returning in Murshidabad, where the agitation against the new law had sparked off communal violence last week.

With police and paramilitary forces continuing to patrol the areas affected by violence at Suti, Samserganj, Dhulian and Jangipur in Murshidabad, the shops started reopening, and the people, who had been displaced due to violence and had taken refuge in a school at Baishnab Nagar in neighbouring Malda, started returning to their homesteads.

The clash at Bhangar in the South 24 Parganas district took place when police stopped the supporters of the Indian Secular Front, a political party founded in West Bengal in 2021, who were heading towards the Ramlila Maidan in central Kolkata to stage a protest rally against the new Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. The mob attempted to break through the barricades, prompting the police to cane the protesters.

The ISF supporters then hurled stones and set ablaze a few police vehicles and blocked a highway, disrupting vehicular traffic for a few hours.

The police, however, dispersed the protesters.

"The chief minister has said the new Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, will not be implemented in West Bengal. We welcome her announcement,” Naushad Siddique, the lone ISF member in the legislative assembly of West Bengal, later said, addressing the rally at Ramlila Maidan in Kolkata. “But why are police then stopping our workers from attending a peaceful rally to protest against the new law? Does only the Trinamool Congress have the right to protest?" he wondered.

He was referring to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement on Friday that the new law would not be implemented in the state. Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress had joined others in opposing the passage of the law in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha earlier this month.

“This law is not just an attack on Muslims, it is an assault on the Constitution of India,” said the ISF leader, adding: “We would never accept this law. The government that supports such laws must go.”

The violence triggered by the protest against the new Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, in Murshidabad claimed three lives on Friday and Saturday. The bodies of 74-year-old Hargobind Das and his 40-year-old son Chandan Das were recovered from the family’s home at Jafrabad in Samserganj on Saturday. They were allegedly hacked to death by miscreants during violent protests against the new law late on Friday. Izaz Momin, who was among the two people wounded in police firing during violent protests at Sajur More in Suti, succumbed to his injuries on Saturday. Another person was injured in the police firing in Dhulian on Saturday.

Nearly 15 policemen were injured as the protesters hurled stones at the security personnel on Friday and Saturday, apart from blocking roads, ransacking government offices, vandalising railway stations, disrupting train services and setting ablaze vehicles, including the ones used by the cops.

“We urge people not to believe rumours and to verify information. Rumour mongering must be stopped to ensure peace,” Jawed Shamim, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), told journalists in Kolkata on Monday, adding that normalcy was gradually coming back to Murshidabad.

He said that over 200 people had been arrested so far. “The priority of police is to restore complete normalcy in Murshidabad, and we are confident that it will be achieved soon."