By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Kolkata/Asansole: After the October 2 Burdwan bomb blast, a section of the main stream media’s campaign against the Madrasas and Muslims in West Bengal are facing suspicion across the community. Muslims are being made the target of communal hate campaigns.
The latest case in point is an incident on Monday where a housewife, wearing a Burqa, boarded a state run bus with her husband and children at the Asansol Bus stand of Burdwan district. The driver and the conductor stopped them and insisted on searching their luggage else denied entry into the bus.
Local people of Asansole shows agitation at Asansole Bus Stand against State run Bus driver and conductor in presence of Police officer of Asansole South police station on 24 November, 2014
The bus is run by the South Bengal State Transport Corporation, a Government concern, with destination from Asansole bus stand to Kolkata (Karunamoyee, Salt Lake). When the women and her husband Muhammad Zafor Alam protested, the bus driver and the conductor allegedly threatened them to de-board them.
“The duo asked us how they can be sure that our luggage did not have bomb or any such explosive material. They also asked how to be sure we were not extremists. As we were in a hurry to reach Kolkata, we allowed them to search our baggage, only after they allowed us to board the bus,” Zafor alleged.
During the nearly four hour journey, the couple also faced few instances of verbal abuse from a section of fellow passengers, he said, adding, “They were taunting us about the burqa and were suspicious about terror regarding us.”
Another search of the baggage was conducted after the bus reached Kolkata Salt Lake. Zafor and his family was returning from his in-laws house at Asansole to his own home in Madyamgram of North 24 Parganas, around 10 km from Salt Lake.
“Do the government bus driver and conductor have any right to search us?” Zafor condemned and claimed, the family lost Rs 7500 and ornaments during the search.
He informed his relatives back at Asansol about the harassment, which prompted a whole lot of group of his relatives and family friends to gather at the bus stand even before that bus returned from Salt Lake. They sought an explanation from the officer in-charge of the bus stand of South Bengal State Transport Corporation.
Claiming that the search could have been done by police, the gathering lodged a police complaint and police came within a short time. The people had gathered around the around the bus when it returned from Kolkata and started agitation demanding immediate arrest of the drive-conductor duo.
The agitation was led by general secretary of Tanjim-e-Ektadat Millat Rabiul Islam and general secretary of Asansole sub division Private Motor Transport Workers Union Raju Ahluwalia.
Police officer in-charge of Asansole South police station Sanjoy Chakroborty said, “We have got the complaint and detained the bus. The investigation has started and necessary action will be taken against the government bus driver and the conductor.”
Related: