Bengal BJP activists clash with police during bandh over worker's killing

West Bengal BJP activists clashed with the police in Howrah district's Bagnan on Thursday after they were prevented from taking out a protest rally against the killing of a saffron party worker in the area.

The BJP had called a 12-hour bandh in the Bagnan assembly constituency area against the killing of its worker Kinkar Majhi, who succumbed to his gunshot injuries on Wednesday.

Majhi was allegedly shot at by a TMC worker, also his neighbour, over a land dispute on October 24. He was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kolkata.

BJP Yuva Morcha state president and Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan went inside the Bagnan police station to talk with senior officers after the saffron party was denied permission to take out the rally.

However, even as Khan was speaking with the senior officers, BJP workers attempted to scale the closed gates of the police station, leading to a scuffle with the deployed personnel.

"Our party worker was killed but we are not being allowed to take out a rally and our activists have been beaten up by the police and arrested, while TMC leaders were allowed to take out a rally today," the BJP MP told reporters.

The police said the BJP workers were denied permission to take out the rally as it could have created a "law and order problem in the area".

The area has remained tense since Wednesday evening following Majhi's death, with reports of violence and arson, even as police personnel patrolled the area.

The TMC leadership has claimed that miscreants had shot at Majhi due to a family dispute and accused the BJP of trying to "politicise the issue".