Mamata Banerjee led West Bengal is facing a huge law and order issue as Muslim mobs have gone on a rampage to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which grants citizenship to persecuted minorities of three neighbouring Islamic countries. As West Bengal descended into chaos after Muslim mob began to unleash riots in the state protesting against CAB, one of the residents of the state – Sankhadeep Shome who went through the horrific experience of these riots near Howrah has written a detailed post on how Muslim mobs unleashed barbarity in the name of protests.
Sharing his ordeal in a Facebook post, Sankhadeep Shome said that yesterday was a day which is unlikely to be ever erased from his memory as for the first time he found himself in the middle of a full-fledged riot and experienced fear. Blood-curdling fear, he added.
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Shome narrated that he was on board UP Howrah-Chennai Central Coromandel Express which rolled into Uluberia station on the Howrah-Kharagpur section at around 3:20 pm on Friday. He stated that a large crowd of around 500-700 miscreants emerged from the “Jummah Namaz” at a mosque adjoining the station, who blocked the entire railway line at a level crossing outside the station.
It is important to note that Muslim mobs had gone on a rampage in West Bengal’s Howrah district. They resorted to extreme violence by blocking tracks at the Uluberia railway station. The Muslim mobs had vandalised the complex and some trains by resorting to stone pelting, injuring a driver, officials said. The violence affected train services in Sealdah division of the Eastern Railway.
According to Shome, a few of them were carrying ‘Oppose CAB and NRC’ posters. Then, he said, a massive crowd of rioters then descended on the station, including young boys barely in their 20s and some as young as 7 and 8 dressed in kurta pyjamas and skullcaps armed with rods and stones.
“First, they shattered all the window panes of an empty rake of Humsafar Express. Then they got to our train and started to pelt it with stones. The elderly were traumatized, the children crying. A stone shattered the glass window of the adjacent coupe. My heart pounded as I heard them screaming,” said Shome.
He added, “I saw them laughing sadistically as they poked the rods through the broken window panes to terrify the passengers. I ducked and stayed dead still. One stray stone, one swing of the rod is all it would take.”
Shome said that the state police were nowhere present at the spot at a time when Muslim mob was going on a rampage. A huge contingent of the RPF arrived from Howrah after half an hour of the incident, who pushed back the Muslim mob with relentless lathi charging and tear gas, he added.
“After a few broken legs and cracked skulls, the rioters again melted away into the slums by the railway line. When I finally emerged from the compartment after 4 hours of confinement, the station resembled a war zone. The locomotive was severely damaged and the loco pilot injured,” noted Shome while sharing his experience of an attack by Muslim mobs.
“You read about mob violence. You watch it on TV. You even romanticise it. Till the day it happens to you. It is then you realise that every single day is a gift,” cried Shome on his Facebook post.
In the state of West Bengal, many members belonging to various Muslim organisations have resorted to violent protests following the passing of the historic Citizenship Amendment Act (CAB).
Protests against the CAB were planned soon after Friday prayers across mosques in the State and other various parts of the country which has resulted in extreme violence in parts of West Bengal.
The Muslim mobs have pelted stones at public properties and policemen along with burning of railway infrastructure in the state. Mobs pelted stones on ambulances and torched several vehicles, A cop was injured in the violent protests against Citizenship Amendment Act.
Prasanta Patnaik