After the violence in Birbhum district of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given orders to the police regarding the recovery of weapons. In this episode, the police team recovered crude bombs in a plastic bag near a football field in Sikandar village on Sunday. News agency ANI reported that a bomb squad team of the Central Investigation Department (CID) had to be called to defuse these bombs. The recovery of the crude bombs comes at a time when the Central Bureau of Investigation is in Bogatui village to probe the violence in which eight people, including two children, were burnt to death.
After the Birbhum violence, West Bengal Police is conducting raids to recover arms and ammunition from across the state. Eight live bombs, three firearms have been recovered from Jagdal, Bijpur and Bhatpara areas in an operation to seize arms and ammunition. According to the latest reports, the CBI team is present at the site of the arson. The team has collected samples of the burnt debris. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) has also collected samples in the violence-hit village of Rampurhat town.
“We will speak to a woman and three others, who were injured in the violence and are now undergoing treatment at a hospital,” a CBI official told news agency PTI. On Saturday, a police officer who is also the first complainant of the fire incident said in the FIR that due to the intense heat, the fire brigade had to wait for ten hours to enter the burnt houses. The official also claimed that apart from setting fire to the houses, there was vandalism, news agency PTI reported.
Meanwhile, the Birbhum violence has triggered a massive political conflict between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party. Demanding imposition of President’s rule in the state, the BJP has likened the Birbhum site to Nazi concentration camps.