NEW DELHI: After the recent communal violence in Tripura, a group of Supreme Court advocates who visited the state to investigate the incident released a report on Tuesday and alleged that it was a "targeted violence against Muslims".
Several reports of attack on members of the minority community, vandalism, arsoning of houses, shops and other properties owned by them have been reported from Tripura in the past four days. Following this, a team of advocates from the SC and human rights activists Ehtesham Hashmi, Amit Srivastav, Ansar Indori and Mukesh visited the northeastern state.
Advocate Hashmi said: "Protests were held in 51 places in Tripura over incidents of attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh. Violence started after the demonstrations. The fact which has come to light before us primarily indicates that if the government had taken appropriate steps on time, the incident would not have assumed such formidable form."
The report released by the team showed that Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Jagran Manch held protests and rallies after several Durga Puja pandals and temples in Bangladesh were vandalised on October 15.
As per the report, at least 12 mosques, nine shops, three houses of the minority community members were targeted during the protests. The fact-finding team found out that such incidents could have been prevented had the police and administration handled the situation strictly.
"Four days before this incident, Muslim organisation Jamaat-E-Ulema (Hind) met with Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Dev and informed him that such incidents could take place and there is a danger to the peace between Hindus and Muslims. Despite this, the government not taking any action is tantamount to sponsoring this violence," said the team in the report.