Clashes break out between two groups in Bengal's Maheshtala; police attacked, vehicles vandalised

Kolkata, June 11 Clashes broke out between two groups at Maheshtala in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on Wednesday, and police personnel, who tried to intervene, were also targeted

Several vehicles were vandalised and gutted in the clashes at the Rabindra Nagar area. The police contingent that tried to resist the clashes was also attacked by the mob, which started pelting stones and bricks at them. Even some of the houses in the adjacent locality were attacked by the mob.

Some of the police personnel were also reportedly injured in their attempts to resist the clashes. Initially, the number of people involved in the clashes outnumbered the police present there, and as a result, the available personnel failed to bring the situation under control. Even the use of tear gas shells by the cops failed to disperse the violent mob.

Additional police forces under the command of senior officials of Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police later rushed to the spot and tried to bring the situation under control. The personnel from the Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed there and are trying to bring the situation under control.

However, there are contradictory claims on what prompted the clashes to break out. The police administration said that the clashes broke out between two groups following a tussle over setting up a shop in the locality.

However, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, claimed that the clashes were clearly "communal" in nature. He alleged that there was an event of vandalism at the Shiva Temple in Ward No. 7 of Maheshtala, where miscreants illegally encroached upon the temple committee's land and set up shops.

"When confronted, they (the encroachers) attacked the sacred Tulsi Manch, nearby Hindu shops, homes, and the temple itself. What was astonishing was that the incident happened at a stone's throw distance from the Rabindra Nagar Police Station, under the watch of IC Mukul Mia and SDPO Kamrujjaman Molla. The police simply could block the vandals... the entire episode happened in the presence of the cops," he alleged.

Adhikari also alleged that from Mothabari to Murshidabad to Maheshtala, the attack on Hindus, Hindu establishments, and Hindu religious places has become a common factor in West Bengal these days.

Meanwhile, a section of the local people alleged that the situation could have been brought under control much before if the police had summoned additional forces in the beginning and thus prevented the tension from spreading.

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