Bengal Bandh: Security enhanced in Kolkata; bus drivers forced to wear helmets

KOLKATA: The authorities have tightened security in Kolkata in the wake of the 12-hour ‘Bengal Bandh’ call by the BJP in protest against the alleged police crackdown during the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ protest rally in the state capital on Tuesday.

The murder and alleged sexual assault of a female trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 caused national outrage and many rallies have been held in different states of the country.

Dendup Sherpa, Additional Superintendent of Police (SP), Uttar Dinajpur, a district in West Bengal, said, “Police personnel are deployed everywhere to maintain Law and Order in the state”.

Anticipating violence, the administration has instructed drivers and conductors of the government buses in Kolkata to wear helmets. Following instruction from the administration, the drivers of North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) buses were seen wearing helmets, in Cooch Behar.

#WATCH | West Bengal | Police detains BJP leader Locket Chatterjee who joined protest after BJP’s call for 12-hour ‘Bengal Bandh’ at Kolkata’s Bata Chowk pic.twitter.com/kNKg9cDK4H

— ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2024

A bus driver said, “We are wearing helmets because of the bandh today…The department has given us the helmets..”. Another bus diver said, “I am a bit scared. It is for safety. It is a government order. The helmet is creating some sort of problem with driving”.

On August 27, chaos broke out in the streets of Kolkata. Security personnel lobbed tear gas shells, used water cannons and resorted to lathicharge to disperse protestors on the Howrah Bridge marching towards the West Bengal State Secretariat Nabanna, amidst the row over the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape-murder case.

Protesters gathered at the Howrah Bridge, climbing atop police barricades and clashed with police personnel during the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ protest march. They were seen breaking and dragging away the barricades that were erected in the Santragachi area, en route to the Secretariat.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging that the party had orchestrated the chaos. “BJP’s idea of a ‘peaceful protest’: Pelt stones and push barricades Severely injure the police Orchestrate extreme chaos and disrupt the law and order of the state. The ‘Nabanna Abhiyan’ conspired by the BJP is nothing short of a fatal attack on Bengal”, the TMC posted on its official X handle on August 28.

The protests on Tuesday followed the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor in the seminar hall of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. (ANI)