KOLKATA: Violent clashes between two communities in four districts in West Bengal during the Durga idol immersion and Muharram tazia (procession) on October 12 and 13 exposed the dark underbelly of modern weapons churned out by illegal arms factories in the state. Earlier, these weapons were known to be made
in Bihar.
The rioting broke out in Chandannagar in Hooghly District, Kharagpur in Paschim Medinipur District, Chanchal in Malda District and Hazinagar in North 24 Parganas. While some members of the tazia procession said crude bombs were hurled at them, participants of the idol immersion processions claimed their shops and homes were burnt by a certain community. The mobs took to arson, throwing crude bombs and firing. Fifty people were injured and over 30 houses and 20 shops were burnt in the four districts. The administration deployed a large number of security personnel and clamped Section 144 in the areas.
What was surprising was that modern firearms were used for the first time in West Bengal. Even workers of political parties were not armed with such weapons earlier. Cadres of the CPM’s Harmad Bahini and Trinamool Congress’ Bhairab Bahini, unofficial armed wings of the parties, had depended on single-round crude home-made weapons called “pipe guns”, single-shooting rifles and crude bombs. A pistol costs `500-1,000, while the rifles are upward of `5,000.
A police official said there has been a massive shift of illegal firearms factories from Bihar to West Bengal due to ease of operations, clampdown on them and political support in West Bengal.
The unearthing of three illegal firearms factories south of Kolkata in Baruipur and Maheshtala in South 24 Parganas within one month led to the seizure of a large number of 9 mm and 7 mm automatic weapons. Two aides of Dawood Ibrahim, who had come to Murshidabad from Kasargod in Kerala to buy weapons, were arrested.
“There are 500 illegal arms factories in Munger District of Bihar, where weapons and bomb-making are a household industry. Many arms makers have shifted base to Murshidabad, Malda, Birbhum and North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts. During the riots, we recovered many automatic pistols and modern hand-thrown bombs, not the crude ones,” the police official said.
The four towns where the clashes broke out are witnessing the rise of right-wing political forces who are counting on non-Bengali voters. The ruling TMC is also trying to woo the same non-
Bengali voters.