KOLKATA: A group of eight Muslim Bengali-speaking migrant workers were allegedly assaulted by Bajrang Dal workers in Chhattisgarh's Raipur on Sunday, resulting in serious injuries for one of the labourer.
The incident happened at Surajpur, under the Katowali police station limits in Raipur district. The migrant workers, who hail from Chepri village in West Bengal's Purulia had been working at a bakery in Surajpur.
On Sunday, the workers got into a heated exchange with the bakery management regarding their wages when a group of Bajrang Dal workers arrived and started beating them up with batons.
As a result of the attack, one of the migrant workers sustained a fracture on his right hand.
The victims were later rescued from the mob by the police, who contacted the Purulia district police administration to verify the documents of the migrant workers.
"A police personnel from the Katowali police station in Surajpur informed me about the incident and sought to know the details about the eight workers. We collected all the documents from the families of the eight hapless victims and submitted it to the police," said Sheikh Iqbal, TMC leader from Chepri.
Meanwhile, another Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant worker was attacked in Odisha's Sambalpur on Sunday, resulting in a fracture to his arm.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier expressed concern over the rising incidents of attack against Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states, and described it as a "brutal oppression." In August last year, the CM urged Bengali migrants working in BJP-ruled states to return to West Bengal and start their own businesses.
The latest attack came less than two weeks after a 30-year-old Muslim migrant labourer from Bengal, Juel Sheikh, was lynched by a mob in Odisha, over "suspicion" of being a Bangladeshi national.
Sheikh was allegedly thrashed severely and later died while undergoing treatment at a Sambalpur hospital. Six people have been arrested so far in connection with the case.
Reacting to the incident, the TMC slammed it as a direct result of the sustained campaign of harassment against Bengalis in BJP-ruled states, portraying them as "infiltrators."
“The lynching of a Bengali migrant worker in Sambalpur is the direct outcome of @BJP4India’s sustained campaign against Bengalis. A citizen of India was beaten to death because a mob believed the lie that Bengalis are infiltrators who must constantly prove their right to exist,” TMC said in a post on X.
