West Bengal: Violence erupts in Mominpur area, 38 detained

Tension between the two groups turned violent with vehicles being vandalised and people pelting stones in the Muslim-dominated area of the cosmopolitan city.

Police said violence erupted Saturday night after flags erected for Muslim festival Eid Milad un-Nabi were allegedly vandalised.

Among the 38 detained was Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Sukanta Majumdar, who was stopped by police while he was heading to the violence-marred spot.

Slamming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the violence, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted, "On Sharad Purnima, when Bengali Hindus celebrate Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, Mominpura, a suburb of Kolkata, is witnessing communal violence.

"Kolkata police abandoned the Ekbalpore police station, perhaps on the orders of Home Minister Mamata Banerjee, while Islamists were on rampage."

Taking up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta tweeted, "The rampaging mob violence targeting businesses and property of the Hindu minority in the Kidderpore- Ekbalpur region of Kolkata is alarming. It stems from the distorted empowerment resulting from a belief that one community is above the law and the norms of civic responsibility."

"I have written to the Prime Minister drawing his attention to the panic of vulnerable Hindu communities in West Bengal to this ugly assertion of sectarian identity. It is being furled (fuelled) entirely by vote bank calculations of the Mamata government."