GUWAHATI: The opposition parties in Tripura slammed the state’s BJP government as the police booked 102 people, including journalists, under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with the recent violence in the state.
The Congress demanded the immediate withdrawal of the cases while the CPI-M said the government demonstrated intolerance by resorting to UAPA.
“The whole situation was created by them when some right-wing organisation (read Vishwa Hindu Parishad) took out a procession in protest against the incidents in Bangladesh and some participating in it torched a few houses and shops of the Muslims,” Congress’s state unit president Birajit Sinha said.
He said there was no point stretching the case as normalcy has already returned in the state.
“UAPA is a stringent law. We demand the government withdraw the case immediately and end the matter since normalcy has returned,” Sinha said.
He criticised the Biplab Deb government for allegedly targeting some Supreme Court lawyers. He said they had visited the state to take stock of the incidents and hence, it was not fair to file cases against them.
“They came for peace, not to create violence,” he added.
The CPI-M said the government could have averted the incidents at Panisagar, Bishalgarh, Udaipur, Kumarghat, and Kailasahar if it had maintained a vigil.
“Members of some organisations and individuals had visited the state to investigate the incidents and unravel the truth. They visited the sites of incidents and spoke to people, police, and the government. Without listening to them, the government filed cases against them under stringent laws. Such behaviour is intolerance and against the freedom of speech. It also goes against the Constitution,” the CPI-M said in a statement.
The party criticised the government for choosing stringent laws over conventional laws to deal with the people.