Police have accused the wife of Esmatur Mominin, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate and incumbent MLA of Phulbari, of obstructing the authorities in their duty and leading a mob that caused havoc last night.
According to police, two supporters of the rival National People’s Party (NPP) were reportedly injured by Mominin’s “close relative” and TMC backers, numbering more than 100, in the mob violence, which occurred at around 8pm. They were rescued by police and Mominin’s relative, Sofiqul Islam, known as Bhutto, was detained. However, he managed to escape when the mob attacked police but another instigator of the violence, name unknown, was detained by police.
However, when the police left the scene of the incident, which was close to Mominin’s house, with the detainee and the two injured persons, another mob led by Hasina Zaman, the wife of the TMC candidate, “obstructed and gheraoed the police team”.
They were ordered to disperse but they did not listen and forcefully took away the detained person. However, the police team managed to safely conduct the two injured NPP supporters, Md Joynal Abedin and Md Aynal Haque to the local community health centre.
Two more injured persons appeared at the health centre on their own, one of whom was a minor girl. She was the only one of the four to have received a serious injury, with a fractured leg; the three adults suffered simple injuries, police said.
Security was beefed up, with reinforcements of police from Rajabala and Bogularbhita, Zonal Magistrate and Assistant Commissioner and central forces. Intensive area domination exercises shall be carried out to ensure that such incidents do not occur in future.
Two cognisable cases were filed at Phulbari police station, one taken up suo moto and the other made by Abedin against 32 persons who are TMC supporters.
However, no one was arrested up to the time of filing this report. According to police inquiries, there have been previous altercations between the same factions due to the differing political affiliations.
According to the police, what set off the trouble yesterday was that the TMC side was playing loud music at around 7pm to 8pm, which was objected to by neighbours of Mominin as it was disturbing their children in the preparation for their exams.
However, instead of this being resolved amicably, police said that Islam and others carried out the assaults. Islam has a history of prior criminal activity, police said, and had also been involved in the recent group clash at Charbatapara village on February 7, following which more than 30 persons from both the TMC and NPP sides were arrested.
