BJP takes out candlelight procession to protest against police attack on workers

Senior state leader Sayantan Basu, who also took part in the candlelight procession, said the party will intensify its programmes in the coming days to protest against the "attack" by police on BJP workers in collusion with the ruling Trinamool Congress. The BJP on Friday took out yet anothercandlelight procession from Barrackpore to Titagarh in the northern fringes of the city to press for a CBI probe into the murder of its youth wing leader Manish Shukla.

BJP activists, led by the party's state unit president Dilip Ghosh, participated in a silent candlelight procession on Friday to protest against the alleged police attack on the saffron party activists during their march to the state secretariat on October 8. Ghosh alleged that the state police had mounted an unprovoked assault on BJP Yuva Morcha (BJYM) members during the march and sprayed coloured chemicals on them, besides lobbing tear gas shells and crude bombs at them.

"But we (BJP) believe in the non-violent democratic form of protest. We are taking out this rally to Mayo Road to remove the darkness pervading the state due to the lawlessness and partisan role of the police. There won't be any slogans," he told reporters. Hundreds of activists of the saffron party, BJYM and its Mahila Morcha participated in the rally which covered a distance of one km on arterial Central Avenue to reach the venue near the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road.

The rallyists carried placards denouncing the "police attack on the BJP during democratic protests", besides candles. Defying COVID-19 regulations, a combative BJP had mustered thousands of its workers on the streets of Kolkata and Howrah on Thursday for a march to the state secretariat over the alleged worsening of law and order, provoking a crackdown by police which left scores injured, eyewitnesses and officials said.

Ghosh claimed that over 100 BJP members, including party leaders, were injured in the attack by the police during the march and many of them are still under treatment. Senior state leader Sayantan Basu, who also took part in the candlelight procession, said the party will intensify its programmes in the coming days to protest against the "attack" by police on BJP workers in collusion with the ruling Trinamool Congress.

The BJP on Friday took out yet another candlelight procession from Barrackpore to Titagarh in the northern fringes of the city to press for a CBI probe into the murder of its youth wing leader Manish Shukla. The rally proceeded from Barrackpore to a BJP party office at Titagarh, in front of which Shukla was killed on Sunday.

Shukla, known to be a close associate of BJP MP Arjun Singh, was shot dead by motorcycle-borne assailants when he was talking to some party workers. While the saffron party claimed that the TMC was behind the murder, the ruling party denied the charge.