TMC claims to have 'definite proof' of foreign hand in Darjeeling unrest, blames BJP for disrupting harmony

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress Sunday claimed it has ‘definite proof’ that foreign powers are behind the ongoing unrest in the Darjeeling hills. [caption id=“attachment_3794395” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] “There has been support from foreign lands to the unrest in the hills and we have definite proof of that,” Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee said. “We will fight to keep West Bengal united and we will never let it be divided,” said the parliamentary affairs and education minister. He said a handful of people are supporting those who want to divide West Bengal. They are working against the people in the hills. The scenic hills erupted in fresh violence on Saturday as supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), spearheading an agitation for a separate Gorkhaland, clashed with the police and set fire to a toy station and a police post. The GJM leadership claimed four of its supporters were killed in police firing. TMC also criticised BJP for bringing people ‘from across the border’ and instigating violence in West Bengal. Speaking to reporters at the TMC Bhawan here, Chatterjee said there have been constant attempts to destroy the communal harmony of the state and the BJP, with support from its government at the Centre, has been behind it. “There have been consistent attempts to destroy the communal harmony in West Bengal. And we have been noticing that people from across the borders are coming to this part of the land with support of the BJP, and creating trouble here and trying to instigate people and spread violence with their hate speeches,” Chatterjee said. The TMC leader alleged that BJP leaders in West Bengal are trying to initiate sporadic violence with support from the Centre. “We are seeing that a few BJP leaders in the state, with the blessings of their government at the Centre, are trying to initiate violence in different places in the state in a planned manner,” Chatterjee said. The TMC will protest against this “conspiracy” and spread the message of communal harmony as well as development works of the state government and will also take to the streets, he said. A central team of the BJP comprising party MPs Meenakshi Lekhi, Om Mathur, and Satyapal Singh, was Saturday stopped from visiting the communal clashes-hit Basirhat area in West Bengal and detained. Meanwhile, blaming the state government in failing to contain the communal violence in Baduria and its adjoining areas in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose Sunday said a peace rally will be organised in the city on 12 July. West Bengal had witnessed a communal violence in Baduria and its adjoining areas in North 24 Parganas district since last Monday over an objectionable Facebook post.