KOLKATA — A wave of widespread violence has swept across West Bengal in the aftermath of the state assembly election results, according to civil rights group Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR).
In a report, the APCR said attackers targeted 34 Muslim-owned properties across at least eight districts in the four days from May 4 to May 7 after the election results were announced.
The violence was not confined to a single area, the report said. Attacks were carried out in a planned manner from Cooch Behar to Howrah, Barasat, Murshidabad, Malda, Birbhum and North and South 24 Parganas, as well as the Kolkata metropolitan area. Mosques, homes, businesses and Muslim-owned hotels were among the roughly 54 properties damaged.
At least two people have died in the violence so far, including a Muslim man killed while trying to protect a mosque in Goshanimari in Cooch Behar. Attackers chanted provocative slogans to spread fear, the report said. In many areas, members of minority communities were also threatened with expulsion and physically and verbally abused.
Muslim-owned businesses were specifically targeted to destroy their economic base, the report said. Two hotels were burned down in Barasat, butcher shops were pressured to close in several locations, and livestock markets were attacked.
The report also said bulldozer rallies were staged to spread fear, and there have been attempts to rename places with Muslim names. Trinamool Congress party offices and the homes of party workers have also been vandalized, the report said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report