Political slugfest in West Bengal over arrest of Al-Qaeda terrorists

The arrest of six Al-Qaeda terrorists by NIA sparked a political slugfest in West Bengal with BJP, accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of resorting to appeasement politics and the turning the state into a "hub of terrorism".

The saffron party has gone all out against the TMC government over the issue ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections.

The state BJP president Dilip Ghosh alleged that the law and order situation in Bengal has totally collapsed said that it has turned into a "hub of terrorism". He also said that the TMC had tried to suppress such incidents and conducted no proper investigation previously.

"The TMC government has does not co-operate when it comes to fencing in the border areas as it depended on the votes of infiltrators. Majority of anti-national activities take place in Bengal and Kerala," said Ghosh.

Flaying the TMC government, senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha said the state should shun "appeasement politics, dirty communal politics and take strong measures against terror modules setting up their bases in state."

"Remember the RDX blast at Bowbazar over two decades back. The entire state is now sitting on a powder keg. If the administration doesn't sit up and take note, Bengal will be in flames," Sinha said.

Congress also targeted the TMC government over the issue. Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha and state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that the intelligence network of the state government was becoming weak as police was preoccupied with shielding TMC.

"This brings bad name to Murshidabad district which has borders with Bangladesh, to entire West Bengal," Chowdhury, the WBPCC President said.

Targeting the Centre, Chowdhury said that a "polarisation" was taking place in politics which was not good for the country.

"Terrorists organisations use such decisions of the government to brainwash the poor and the needy," said Chowdhury.

"It throws up the question whether the state administration is competent enough to tackle the spurt in terrorist activities in state. Earlier, we had heard about numerous cases of Jamat activists arrested. Now it is Al-Qaeda, the most dreaded terror outfit in the world," he said.

Senior CPI(M) MLA and Leader of the Left Legislative Party Sujan Chakraborty said that "terrorists are terrorists. No one should try to gain political mileage by creating a public frenzy over their religion".

TMC, however, denied this allegation. TMC MP Saugata Roy said that the incident had nothing to do with the law and order situation in the state administration which is committed to flush out terrorists.

"Militants enter the state through the borders. BSF looks after the borders and it is under the Centre. If Centre provided intelligence inputs in advance the state government would have definitely taken action," said Roy.

(With inputs from PTI)