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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Saturday that two tribal women in West Bengal’s Malda district were stripped and assaulted this week “while the police remained silent spectators”, slamming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for failing to provide security for women in the state. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) responded saying that the women were at the other end of the public outcry after they were caught in the robbery.
The alleged incident took place at the Bakwa Haat (weekly market) in Pamangula in Malda district on July 19.
According to local residents, five kissing women from the Manichak district of the district, who came to the market to sell local products, were caught stealing from other women. Three of them managed to escape, but were allegedly caught by two women in the market and beaten.
Video footage of the incident showed a group of women assaulting two women with slippers and tearing their clothes. A civilian police volunteer tried to rescue the women but she too was assaulted by the mob. Allegedly, the locals did not come to the rescue of the two women.
Sharing a video of the incident, Amit Malviya, BJP IT cell chief and co-observer of the party in West Bengal, said, “Terror continues in West Bengal. Two tribal women were stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly, while the police remained a silent spectator in the Bakwa Hat area of Pamangula Police Station, Malda.”
“The horrible incident happened on the morning of July 19. The women belonged to a socially marginalized community and had a frenzied mob slashing at her for blood… It was all the making of a tragedy that should have ‘broken’ Mamata Banerjee’s heart, and she could have, rather than just been angry, acted, as she is also the Home Minister of Bengal,” Malviya said in the post.
“But she chose to do nothing. Nor did she denounce the barbarism nor express the pain and anguish that she would have exposed her failure as Prime Minister.”
Banerjee on Friday attacked the BJP over sexual violence against women in Manipur, asking the party what happened to its promise of “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (Save the girls, educate the girls)”.
The BJP president, Sukanta Majumdar, also questioned Banerjee’s silence on this incident. “Another horrific incident with tribal women in the West Bank. Two tribal women were stripped naked and beaten mercilessly in Malda. Like other heinous incidents, Didi is silent and takes no action in her judgment. Why is India not condemning this?” Majumdar said in a Twitter post.
However, Shashi Banga, TMC leader and Minister of State, criticized the BJP for politicizing the incident and said that the police had learned of the incident on their own and had filed a case.
He learned that women came to the local market and were caught stealing from other women. The women were beaten out of public anger. This wasn’t supposed to happen. But sometimes, people resort to such things when these kind of incidents happen. The civilian volunteer tried to help the women. However, they are overpowered by the group of women. Later, the two women were rescued,” said the Secretary of State (independently responsible) for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare.”
Criticizing the BJP for misleading people, the TMC leader said, “The BJP is not ashamed. Yesterday also they tried to create a false narrative about an incident in Howrah. Today they are again sharing false information. This (Malda) incident has no political connotations and is a local issue. They want to politicize every incident that takes place in Bengal to divert people’s attention from the Manipur incident.”
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