Image: Indian Express

From what we know so far:
1. A Facebook post was made on Sunday (July 2) by a teenager Souvik Sarkar, resident of Rudrapur, which comes under the jurisdiction of Baduria P.S. and Municipality. It was an outrageous, deliberately inflammatory FB post which contained a morphed, sexually explicit and derogatory image of the Prophet Muhammad at the Kaaba. It cannot be mistaken as a mere prank. It was meant to incite and provoke.

2. Local Muslim residents of Baduria started protesting against the FB post from Sunday evening, demanding action against the provocateur. The matter was initially diffused with the intervention of the local police, which promised action.

3. The provocateur was arrested on Monday (July 3) evening. By that time, violence had spread in the neighbouring areas of Basirhat, Deganga and Swarupnagar. Angry mobs of Muslims blocked the roads, vandalised shops and houses, attacked a police station and set police vehicles on fire. A mob gathered outside the Baduria police station and demanded that the provocateur be handed over to them. Souvik Sarkar’s house was also attacked and torched. There was counter mobilisation by Hindu mobs too who set up road blockades and vandalised shops.

4. The violence continued unabated till Tuesday (July 4) afternoon. After that, paramilitary forces were deployed and the situation has improved somewhat, but the atmosphere remains tense.

In the light of these incidents, the State Government must ensure the following:
a. Criminal charges of incitement, provocation and spreading enmity between communities should be filed against Souvik Sarkar and there should be a speedy trial. It should also be probed whether other political elements had a hand behind his Facebook post.
b. The criminals who attacked the police station in Baduria and torched Souvik Sarkar’s house should be identified and arrested.
c. The fundamentalist elements within the Muslim community, who utilised the situation to spread violence in the neighbouring areas of Basirhat, Deganga and Swarupnagar should be identified and arrested.
d. The fundamentalist elements within the Hindu community who have organised violence in the neighbouring areas should also be identified and arrested.

If these criminal miscreants from both the Hindu and Muslim communities are not identified and arrested, the society will never know who exactly are responsible for the violence which continued for over 48 hours. Both communities will remain divided and look at each other with suspicion.

It is the failure of the State Government in conducting fair and impartial investigations in successive cases of communal violence that is emboldening the criminal elements among Hindus and Muslims alike, and is leading to the recurrence of such incidents. If the State Government fails in its responsibility to identify and arrest the culprits of Baduria and elsewhere, it will be unpardonable.
 

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