Muharram turns violent in GangaSagar

Hindus strike back convincingly

The original notion of Muharram has been simple; it is the first month of Islamic calendar and also one of the four sacred months of the year in which fighting is barred, as per Islamic tenets. However, the situation in India has always been different. Hindus have always found Muslims as more hostile in this very day and at the moment, none better than the village Panchayat of BanglaBazar, P:S: GangaSagar, Dist: 24 Paraganas (South) in West Bengal, can bear testimony to the same. Hindus in the said vicinity never even imagined that the Muharram, happening on last 17th December, would turn out to be so violent.

To be precise, celebration of Muharram in and around Banglabazar is not a new thing; it has been happening for years. It’s also a reality that the belligerent Muslims, on each year, cut down trees of Hindus just to make a fun. But Hindus, at this time, were steadfast to call all these activities a halt and hence, they slashed trees by then. Well, it failed to demoralize Muslims on the whole as they focused to slim down tree branches and also the roots. Even though such a deliberate attempt was enough to incite Hindus, they were able to restrain themselves.

But the situation worsened whenever Muslims tried to loot a shop forcefully. One Hindu individual named Anil Maity protested against all these and was beaten extremely accordingly. Sword was also used to slay him but the shawl saved him timely. This was not all; computer of an adjoining shop was also destroyed along with looting.

Once the reality was exposed, thousands of Hindus from the surrounding area gathered and to save themselves, prevented the miscreants. Muslims, hence, had to flee. In accordance with local sources, foremost responsible factors against all these were Sheikh Ismail (ex-Chairman, village Panchayat), Sheikh Raja and his nephew, son of Sheikh Jalal, noted tout of the local police station. The main intention of Muslims was to terrorize and molest Hindu women. Hindus got hold of the reality in advance and this made them attack with vigor.

There is another reason behind such a change in Hindu attitude. A few months before, Muslims ransacked the Rudra Nagar Ahalya Club and at that time also Hindus fought valiantly under the leadership of Hindu Samhati.

Well, at long last, local administration along with a large contingent of police personnel appeared in the scenario. A meeting was convened by the SDPO to put an end to the rising scuffle between Hindus and Muslims. But local people alleged that police acted hastily to save Muslims only.