KOLKATA: The BJP has called a 12-hour shutdown in West Bengal on September 26 to protest the killing of two students in a clash with police in North Dinajpur district in the state.
Announcing the shutdown, senior BJP leaders Mukul Roy and Pratap Banerjee accused the state government of failing to control the situation in Islampur, where the clash occurred on Thursday at Daribhit High School.
The villagers of Daribhit had claimed that the students were hit by bullets fired by police.
However, the police had denied its involvement, even as the district superintendent of police had conceded that the two had died of bullet injuries.
Pratap Banerjee said, "We have decided to call a 12-hour shutdown in the state against the killing two people in police firing in Islampur area." The people of Islampur and the entire state are "fed up with the misrule of TMC in Bengal" and the shutdown will be "an expression of people's anger against the anti-people government", he said here.
SP Sumnit Kumar had said members of the mob were carrying bombs and arms, and 14 policemen were injured in the clash.
Seven people, including some BJP supporters, were detained in connection with the incident which took place when the students and locals stopped three newly recruited Urdu teachers from entering the school with police help on Thursday.
The students had said they needed science and english teachers and not Urdu teachers, and demanded that all vacant teaching posts in the school be filled. The BJP had observed a 12-hour shutdown in North Dinajpur district on Friday over the incident.