Bhangar on edge after leader of land agitators is arrested
Police will bring Alik Chakraborty to Kolkata on a transit remand
KOLKATA: Agitators in Bhangar blocked arterial roads and took out a rally on Friday protesting the arrest of the movement’s leader Alik Chakraborty on Thursday in Odisha.
A Bhubaneswar court granted transit remand of four days to Bengal Police to bring the Naxalite leader in Kolkata.
Protests in Bhangar started on Thursday evening, hours after the news of Chakraborty’s arrest in Bhubaneswar spread.
In the evening agitators took out a torch rally that covered a few kilometres in the area.
Haroa Road, an important thoroughfare in the area, was blocked since early morning on Friday. Bamboo poles, bricks and burning tyres were placed on the road to prevent movement of traffic.
While the land agitators, who were protesting the setting up of a power grid project in the area, were locked in a stand-off with the ruling Trinamool Congress leaders of the South 24 Parganas district since December 2016, the fight assumed a different dimension after nine of the agitators contested the gram panchayat elections in the area and won five.
Chakraborty, a politburo member of Naxalite party CPI(ML)(Red Star) was the key man organising the movement that has now spread to about a dozen villages.
About a year and a half ago, Chakraborty was booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Arms Act, and several other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the CrPC but was evading the police so far.
Earlier this year, the Calcutta high court granted bail to two of Chakraborty’s comrades, Sharmistha Choudhury and Pradip Singh Thakur, who were arrested earlier under UA(P)A for their involvement in the same agitation. “We demand his immediate release and hospitalisation. We would also like to make it clear that this arrest will not be able to weaken the movement,” said Mirza Hasan, a localite and the spokesperson of Jami, Jibika, Poribesh O Bastutantra Raksha Committee that is spearheading the movement.
The movement forced the administration to stop work on the near-complete power grid project since January 2017.
It has already got active support from the CPI(M), the Congress and other small Left parties, the leaders of which also took part in the protest rally on Friday in Bhangar.
“We suspect that Trinamoolbacked goons will feel encouraged by this arrest and will try to mount attack on the agitators. If a single of the agitators is assaulted, villagers will pay them back in the same coin,” said Chowdhury, who is also a central committee member of CPI(ML)(Red Star) that also has presence in Odisha and Kerala.
“We demand his release from police custody immediately. Also the fake cases lodged against him should be withdrawn,” said CPI-ML Red Star leader Sarmistha Chowdhury, who is also associated with movement.
On Friday, protests were also staged outside Banga Bhavan in New Delhi and at the Bhubaneshwar court premises as well.