ISF Creating Chaos, Planting Bombs At Different Places: TMC Leader On Kolkata Violence

“ISF is trying to create chaos according to plan and is planting bombs in different places. Police caught them red-handed. ISF is trying to attack TMC workers," said TMC leader Arabul Islam

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress leader Arabul Islam alleged the Indian Secular Front of “trying to create chaos” and “planting bombs at different places”.  The TMC leader’s comments came after bombs and pistols were recovered from the backyard of his house in Bhangar following a violent clash between TMC and ISF in Kolkata. 

He alleged ISF of planting the arms in his house. 

“ISF is trying to create chaos according to plan and is planting bombs in different places. Police caught them red-handed. ISF is trying to attack TMC workers,” he was quoted by news agency ANI as saying. 

“14 bombs were found from behind my house. I appeal to police to arrest ISF activists who are keeping bombs in different places to ensure that no untoward incident takes place. ISF will not get a single seat in Bhangar,” he added. 

The ISF was protesting at Kolkata’s Dorina Crossing against alleged attacks on party activists by the ruling Trinamool Congress at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district.

The protest turned violent on Saturday afternoon during which both the police personnel and opposition activists were injured. ISF MLA Nawshad Siddiqui, who was leading the protest, and around 100 supporters of the party were arrested.

According to news agency PTI, the protest threw traffic out of gear as activists blocked an arterial road in the heart of the city, prompting the cops to ask them to clear Jawaharlal Nehru Road and allow traffic movement.

However, the activists refused to budge, demanding that the perpetrators behind the attacks on its activists at Bhangar be arrested first. The protestors began pelting stones at the cops who used batons and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse them.

At least 19 policemen including police officers were also injured in the clash while the number of ISF members injured is not known. 

ISF is the only opposition party other than BJP to have won a seat in the 2021 West Bengal assembly election. Its allies, the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress failed to bag any seat.

The party was formed by Abbas Siddiqui, an influential Muslim cleric of Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district, in February of that year.