All India Matua Mahasangha puts up road blockade to protest against 'manhandling' of TMC MP at Silchar airport

Barasat: A religious organisation put up road blockades in North 24 Parganas district in protest against the alleged manhandling of a Trinamool Congress MP, who belongs to the organisation, at Silchar airport, police said. The All India Matua Mahasangha, a religious reformation organisation mainly representing the backward classes, blocked the Habra-Bashirhat Road at two places — Pairagachhi and Kashipur. The police intervened and the agitators left the two places after around half-an-hour, police said. [caption id=“attachment_4882521” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  TMC leader Derek O’Brien tweeted alleging that police assaulted members of TMC delegation at Silchar Airport. Twitter/@AITC[/caption] They were protesting against the alleged manhandling of Mamatabala Thakur, the Trinamool Congress MP from Bangaon, at Silchar airport in Assam where she had gone as part of a party delegation to assess the post-NRC situation in Assam. However, after they landed at the airport Thursday day afternoon, the Cachar district authorities stopped them and took under preventive detention saying their visit might create trouble. The TMC leaders alleged that they had been manhandled by the police and even women MPs were not spared. The Assam Police, however, denied the charge. Mamatabala Thakur belongs to the Matua community. The Matuas had squatted on rail tracks at many stations of the district on Wednesday protesting the exclusion of 40 lakh people from Assam’s complete draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC).