Basirhat riots: BJP to hold protest rally in Kolkata tomorrow

"Starting from our party office at Central Avenue area, the rally will end in city's downtown Esplanade area tomorrow," West Bengal BJP's president Dilip Ghosh said, during a press conference in Kolkata on Friday.

"After the rally, our delegation will meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi with a demand to impose President's rule in the state as the Mamata-government failed to restore peace in violence-hit Basirhat-Baduria," Ghosh added.

Earlier in the morning, a BJP delegation, led by MP Roopa Ganguly, was stopped by police at Birati's Michael Nagar area, nearly 50 km. away from Basirhat.

Several BJP leaders, including Roopa Ganguly, Locket Chatterjee and Jayprakash Majumder, were arrested after they forcibly tried to move towards violence-hit Baduria disobeying police's order.

They, however, released from a local police station after few hours.

Meanwhile, police also prevented delegations of Congress and CPI-M from entering the riot-hit areas on Friday.

Earlier on Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to her party's leader-activists and oppositions not to visit violence-affected areas in Basirhat sub-division until situation becomes normal.

During a debate show in national news channel- Republic TV, singer-turned-BJP MP and Union Minister Babul Supriyo, claimed that being a 'Hindu' in West Bengal is a crime.

"Being a Hindu in West Bengal is a crime. You cannot be a part of a majority as the minority are the people who keep Mamata Banerjee in power," Babul Supriyo said. "Mamata Banerjee has been playing with fire for a very long time."

Meanwhile, situation remains tense at Baduria and its adjoining areas, including Basirhat, Deganga and Swarupnagar, though no fresh clash has been reported since Thursday night. A heavy police force along with RAF and central paramilitary force personnel are carrying out route march at the violence-hit areas.

CrPC section 144 has been imposed there and broadband internet connection has been blocked across North 24 Parganas district of Bengal to maintain peace and law and order and to avoid further untoward incident.

Violence broke out in Basirhat last week over an apparent Facebook post. Though the situation was brought under control it again turned bad on Thursday after police caned an angry crowd that alleged that only the people from a particular community were being arrested.

Local Trinamool Congress MLA Dipendu Biswas had to face the ire of the people who had to leave the town under police protection.

The state government has suspended internet services in four police station areas of Basirhat, Baduria, Swarupnagar and Deganga to check the spread of rumours through social networking sites.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)