The West Bengal police is facing a major law and order problem after a senior politician of the ruling Trinamool Congress allegedly made a controversial speech, threatening to break the knee of those demanding separate statehood for Cooch Behar district.
The state intelligence branch has suddenly woken up after two prominent communities in North Bengal—Rajbongshi and Kamtapuri—launched protests against TMC MLA Udyan Guha for allegedly threatening those who demand for a separate state.
Niraj Singh, the chief of the intelligence branch in Kolkata, wrote a letter to all senior police officials of the state on Friday, warning that the law and order of West Bengal could be badly hit in the coming days unless precaution is taken.
“Information received indicates that on 18. 02. 2022, at about 18.00 hrs, Udyan Guha, MLA, Dinhata, made a speech undermining the so called statehood movement of any community in Cooch Behar district, at an election campaign meeting in Tufanganj town. The remarks have reportedly offended the Kamtapuri community and leaders of different Kamtapuri organisations like KPP, KPP(U), AKSU, KSO and Ex-KLO (Kamtapuri Liberation Organisation, a terrorist group). Linkmen groups have started launching different types of agitation programmes protesting the alleged controversial speech of Udyan Guha,” the letter said.
This is for the first time the West Bengal administration is facing the heat over the separate statehood demand. Officials admitted that the agitation programmes are in full swing.
The intelligence report has mentioned that on February 21, around 550 people from the KPP (U) headed by Nikhil Roy held a programme at the DM office in Cooch Behar to protest against the speech of Guha who vehemently opposed the breaking up of West Bengal. A few days ago, Union Minister of State for Home Nisith Pramanik, a Rajbangshi leader, called for freedom for the people of Cooch Behar and North Bengal.
The report has also outlined that on February 23, followers of KPP(U), AKSU and Ex-KLO organised jointly a protest rally at Maynaguri in Jalpaiguri district and burned the effigy of Guha.
Guha is the son of Kamal Guha, a former senior minister of Jyoti Basu government and a Forward Block leader.
The state IB chief has asked all officers to “sensitize officers and policemen” to collect further input locally and keep a sharp vigil to avoid any untoward incident or situation.
