The Minority Affairs Ministry will soon send a fact-finding team to West Bengal following ‘growing attacks’ on Muslims, allegedly by Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers.
“The issue is very serious. We will very soon send a fact-finding team there and will also seek a probe by the National Minorities Commission,” Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Minister of State for Minority Affairs, told reporters in Parliament House on Thursday.
Naqvi said his Ministry would also flag the issue with the National Human Rights Commission.
Earlier, a delegation of BJP leaders, led by SS Ahluwalia (MP from North Bengal), Siddharth Nath Singh (National Secretary), Babul Supriyo (MP from Asansol) and others handed over a letter to Naqvi, bringing to his notice the alleged ‘violence against Muslims’ particularly in Birbhum, 24 Parganas and Midnapore, urging him to send a Central probe team.
“The State police is in collusion and is pointing out targets,” alleged Ahluwalia, adding that “grenades were found in a public health centre in Birbhum.”
He claimed the attacks were growing because lakhs of TMC workers had ‘shifted’ to the BJP.
Of late, the face-off between TMC and BJP has been intensifying in the State leading to communal polarisation, especially in rural areas, as both the political parties see each other as key rivals in the Assembly elections due in 2016.