KOLKATA: A Muslim migrant worker from West Bengal was allegedly lynched on Wednesday by a group of people in Andhra Pradesh's Komarlu after being accused of theft.
Manjur Alam Laskar, a resident of Rongilabad village in the Magrahat West area of South 24 Parganas district, was working at a zari unit in Komarlu.
Manjur's family alleged that he was beaten to death by a group of criminals who had accused him of theft.
The family claimed that they received a ransom call on Tuesday, from an unknown number, demanding Rs 25,000 and threatening to kill him otherwise. The family reportedly transferred Rs 6000 through online payment but was informed of Manjur's death the next day.
Meanwhile, the local TMC unit in Magrahat alleged that BJP workers and supporters in Komarlu were involved in Manjur’s death.
The killing came just days after another Bengali migrant worker, Alauddin Sheikh from Beldanga in Murshidabad, was murdered in neighbouring Jharkhand on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national. The incident had led locals to block railway tracks and National Highway 12 in Beldanga, causing major disruption.
The TMC leadership in West Bengal has repeatedly criticised the BJP-led central government over the alleged attacks on migrant workers from West Bengal, particularly in BJP-ruled states.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has strongly condemned the attacks, describing them as "brutal oppression, harassment, and violence" against Bengalis in "every BJP-ruled state."
Expressing concern over the rising assaults on migrant labourers in Odisha, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and former West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury recently visited Sambalpur.
