West Bengal : On the
morning of 29 January, large scale violence rocked Usti market in South
24 Parganas district of West Bengal. More than 50 Hindu shops were
ransacked, looted and gutted by a mob of rioting jihadis. Properties and
cash worth more than a crore were looted from the shops belonging to
Hindus.
The situation further worsened when the local MLA and Minister of
State for Minority Affairs, Giyasuddin Mollah reached the spot and
reportedly abused and insulted the SDPO of Diamond Harbour. Eyewitnesses
report that he asked the police to release the rioters held by law
enforcement officials on the spot, claiming they were his men.The rampaging mob looted more than a dozen LCD TV sets from a shop owned by Krishna Mandal. Cash and clothes worth ₹40 lakhs were looted from Nabin Pal’s shop named, Annapurna Vastrayala. The bicycle shop of Parimal Pal, a grocery shop belonging to Sahadeb Ghosh, the Narayan Mishtanna Bhandar (a sweet shop) of Ashish Mandal and the Makali Mishtanna Bhandar were looted and destroyed. Gas cutters were used to break the shutters of the shops even as the police watched and eventually fired a few rounds in the air to bring the situation under control. In the melee, bombs were also hurled indiscriminately to terrorise the Hindus.
The administration is desperate to suppress the report of this wanton act of violence and arson. Meanwhile, not one mainstream media outlet has reported this gruesome incident.
According to the report received by Hindu Samhati, about 15 persons from both communities have been arrested so far. It is also reported that the Hindus, whose shops have been looted, have been detained by the police while many attackers are roaming free.
As earlier IndiaFacts reports show, South 24 Paraganas has for long been a target of violent Jihadists who seem to want to ethnically cleanse the region of Hindus. Now, Usti has been added in the long list of the ongoing Hindu persecution in West Bengal.
Over the years, many areas in the district (and elsewhere in the past, for example, Kashmir) have witnessed a forced migration for Hindus and the resultant demographic takeover by the fanatics.
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