The Left parties have called a State-wide protest against the “police action” on their supporters during Monday’s ‘March to Nabanna.’ They will observe Tuesday as a day of condemnation across West Bengal.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the protest would continue till the Trinamool Congress government apologised. “About 250 of our party supporters have sustained injuries and 100 grave injuries,” he said.
“We condemn the police provocation and attack on our party workers who took part in today’s [Monday’s] peaceful rally. Many of them got severely injured as the police resorted to baton-charge and lobbing of tear-gas shells,” Left Front chairman Biman Bose said.
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Mr. Bose and CPI(M) State Secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra were present on Mayo Road, which resembled a war zone. They insisted that the march was “peaceful.”
Asked about the injuries to the policemen, Mr. Bose alleged that it was the police who first resorted to violence, acting as agent provocateurs . “If the police did not throw stones at our activists, they would not have been injured. They resorted to stone-throwing first and some of our workers paid them back in the same coin.”
Mr. Mishra said the march was a success and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was scared of protest. “This shows the CM is scared. She thinks that the protest can be stopped. But the protest will not be limited to some city roads; it will be staged across the State,” he said.
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