Political violence at Siliguri

News Desk: The West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said that a party worker was killed as police resorted to lathicharge and used water cannon, teargas during a protest march in West Bengal’s Siliguri. The BJP has called a 12-hour bandh (shutdown) in North Bengal on Tuesday, December 8 to protest police action during the march.

BJP Yuva Morcha national president Tejasvi Surya, who was present in Siliguri to participate in the protest, said that a local worker suffered splinter injuries caused by country bombs used by Trinamool Congress workers.

“I am informed by our local karyakartas that Sri Ulen Roy, a senior BJP karyakarta, has succumbed to splinter injuries caused by the country bombs that Mamata’s police threw. This is murder. Nothing less.  We are very angry. We will never forgive you Mamata Di. Om Shanti!” Surya tweeted.

BJP’s Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh said Roy died of injuries sustained during police’s baton charge. “One of our party workers was injured in the baton charge and he died in hospital. Deceased Ulen Roy, 50, was a resident of Jalpaiguri’s Gajoldoba area,” Ghosh said.

The protest march, as part of the ‘Uttarkanya Abhijan’, was organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) against the alleged misrule of the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal and not fulfilling the promises made to the people of north Bengal.

Many BJP activists, including women, fell ill after inhaling tear gas. BJYM national President and Bangalore (South) Lok Sabha member Tejasvi Surya and state BJYM President Saumitra Khan also fell ill.

BJP national General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, national Secretary Arvind Menon and several others also participated in the protest march.

Assembly elections in West Bengal are due in April/May next year, and the BJP is already pushing an aggressive campaign in the state against Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool.