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Death toll in police firing in Bengal’s Islampur rises to two; bandh hits normal life

Hindustan Times, Kolkata | By
Sep 21, 2018 04:01 PM IST

Violence continued on Friday with two government buses and two wheelers set on fire during a 12-hour bandh called by the BJP to protest the police firing in Islampur.

The death toll in Thursday’s violence in a school in Islampur in north Dinajpur district over the appointment of teachers rose to two, with a 23-year-old youth succumbing to his injuries on Friday, raising tensions in the sensitive town.

Violence continued on Friday with two government buses and two wheelers set on fire during a 12-hour bandh called by the BJP to protest the police firing in Islampur, 56 km south of Siliguri. But district police superintendent Sumit Kumar had denied any firing on Thusday.

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The administration has deployed a large number of policemen in Islampur.

Tapash Burman, (21), a former student of Daribhit High School who used to run a sweet shop near the school that turned into a battlefield on Thursday, died in a hospital Friday morning. On Thursday, Rajesh Sarkar (19) a former student of the school and a first year student of Islampur College died after allegedly being hit by a bullet.

Partha Chatterjee, who is heading the group of ministers in the absence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is in Europe, blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha for fomenting trouble on Thursday that led to the violence.

“We are certain that RSS had a role in Thursday’s trouble. They brought people from outside to cause the deaths and indulge in politics of death,” Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee also said that irrespective of who was involved, the guilty would not be spared. He also blamed the district inspector of schools for going ahead with the appointments which triggered the clashes.

“Rabindra Kumar Mondal, the district inspector of schools, went ahead with the appointments keeping the administration in the dark. We have put him under immediate suspension,” added Chatterjee.

The students were protesting the appointment of Urdu and Sanskrit teachers while they needed teachers of science and literature.

“While the students were demanding teachers in some particular subjects, the appointment was for some other subjects. There are irregularities in these appointments. We want a probe by a former judge in both the appointments and the firing by the police,” remarked BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.

District BJP unit president Shankar Chakraborty alleged the police have launched a crackdown against BJP workers and have already arrested 14 BJP supporters.

“It is sad that Partha Chatterjee has accused the RSS. We strongly suspect irregularities in appointment of teachers who were not needed. The hooliganism that Trinamool Congress patronised is getting back at them,” said Jisnu Basu, general secretary of south Bengal unit of RSS.

Basu also argued that if the police deny firing, it is their duty to find out who opened fire in the school.

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