West Bengal police assures strong action, BJP slams Mamata over horrific Howrah incident

Soon after the shocking incident in West Bengal's Howrah district where locals pelted stones at police personnel, the state police has taken cognisance of the matter and stated that the perpetrators will be persecuted. The West Bengal Police tweeted that it is taking strong action against everyone involved in the incident. "No transgression of the law anywhere will be tolerated," it added. 

BJP slams Mamata

Taking note of the incident, BJP Bengal slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and accused her of playing 'appeasement politics.' The opposition party in the state also alleged that 'her loyal voters' are now attacking policemen in the state. 

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Locals pelt stones at police personnel

A huge crowd of locals in West Bengal's Howrah district had earlier today chased and pelted stones at police officials on duty. The crowd had gathered in the Tikiyapara area violating the lockdown imposed. As soon as the police confronted the crowd, a scuffle broke out with the crowd attacking officials. Videos surfaced show the crowd chasing officials and pelting bottles and stones at the police personnel. The crowd vandalised a police car too, however, no injuries have been reported yet. 

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The incident comes even as Howrah has been recognised as a Red Zone and a complete lockdown has been imposed in the area. The police have also launched a week-long 'Operation Covid Zero' to combat the rising number of cases. As per the media bulletin released on Monday night, there are a total of 504 active COVID-19 cases in the state while a total of 109 have been discharged. 20 deaths due to the virus have been reported in the state.

COVID crisis in Bengal

The West Bengal government on Monday released a list, saying four districts, including Kolkata, have been declared as red zones in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, and 287 areas in the metropolis identified as containment zones. Howrah, North 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur districts have been declared as red zones, besides Kolkata.

Eleven districts have been identified as orange zones, while eight are in the green zone, as per the list released by the state government. Those in the orange zone are South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Kalimpong, Nadia, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Murshidabad and Malda.