Since the Pulwama terror attacks on 14 February, a series of violent mob attacks have taken place across West Bengal. People were assaulted because of their posts on social media regarding the attacks. At least four such cases have been reported from across West Bengal.
The victims in all these cases were branded ‘anti-national’ and assaulted in their homes and forced to chant patriotic slogans. In some cases, videos of these attacks were also uploaded on social media.
Dragged, Insulted, Punished
The first case of mob harassment was reported from Kolkata where a doctor from Srinagar was heckled and asked to “go back to Kashmir.” He was also told that if he didn’t, there would be “consequences.”
The cardiologist, attached with one of Kolkata’s top nursing homes, is now considering going back home fearing the harm that might be caused to him and his family.
In subsequent incidents, the attacks went from verbal to physical.
In a video posted on Facebook by a certain Sarbajit Saha, a first year college student Anik Das from Cooch Behar district can be seen being heckled and humiliated by a large crowd.
“We are at the house of a traitor,” read the caption of the Facebook video. The crowd can be heard threatening Anik over an alleged voice recording that he had circulated among his friends saying that he “did not like India.”
The mob is seen forcefully pulling a half-naked Anik out of his home and forcing him to shout ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, slapping him, and then making him do sit-ups while holding his ears. He was then paraded around town with an Indian flag wrapped around his body. The whole incident was broadcast live on Facebook.
In another incident, at the residence of schoolteacher Chitradeep Shome in Bongaon, an assembled crowd can be seen asking him to apologise with folded hands for “hurting the sentiments of the nation.”
Shome had allegedly written a Facebook post questioning the use of the term ‘martyr’ for the Pulwama jawans. In the video, Shome can be seen saying that his post was taken out of context to the crowd which kept yelling ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
The crowd then proceeded to ransack his house after which Shome and his family fled the spot.
A teacher at DPS North Calcutta, he was subsequently asked to resign from his job by the school authorities.
Threats Of Rape; Police Detention
Students were not spared either.
A third year student at NIT Durgapur, Srijan Goswami, was attacked by students in his college for his Facebook post in which he rued that the armed forces were being used as pawns by political parties.
“On Friday, I had shared my opinion in a post on my Facebook account. After a while, some of my classmates started forcing me to withdraw it. But I refused and told them that I have the freedom to express my opinion. Then, more students gathered and suddenly I found myself surrounded by 25-30 students who started hitting me. They tore my shirt, kicked me and punched me in the face. Fortunately, a few others came to my rescue, brought me to my room and locked it from inside. I called my father to the hostel and left for home immediately.”Srijan Goswami to The Times Of India.
Srijan was forced out of his hostel and had to go back to his home in Bengal’s Burdwan district.
In another case from Barasat, a female student was threatened with rape by a crowd of over a thousand who gathered outside her house after she questioned if the CRPF jawans at Pulwama had enough security in a Facebook post.
In Habra, student Arpan Rakshita was first heckled by a crowd and then picked up by the police for his Facebook post which allegedly “caused outrage and unrest.”
Mamata Blames The Right Wing
Many other incidents have been reported, some right in the heart of Kolkata.
A Life Insurance Corporation of India employee in Durgapur was suspended for social media posts in which he said the killing of innocent Kashmiris hurt him more than that of soldiers and that it was ‘anti-national’ to advocate war.
In Kolkata, a 24-year-old student was publicly beaten up after a screenshot of him congratulating Pakistan on its Independence Day went viral. His post from 14 August 2018 was screenshot and shared after the Pulwama attack.
Not very far from where this incident took place, a man in his 30s was chased out of his home and his parents made to publicly apologise for a Facebook post where he had asked why so many jawans were travelling together and also questioned atrocities committed by the armed forces in Kashmir.
Responding to these incidents, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said:
“We have been noticing a new trend. Individuals are being accused of being anti-national. Suddenly, RSS, VHP and BJP cadres are coming out on the streets with the tricolour at midnight. These communal forces are trying to spread hatred and create panic. I have instructed the police to remain alert against such forces trying to fan riots.”
What is striking in all these incidents is that they were planned attacks that were broadcast and shared widely on social media in real time. Some ‘vigilante’ Facebook pages have also been accused of tracking all profiles that share such ‘anti-national’ posts and thereby hacking them.
No formal arrests have been made by the police in any of the above cases yet.
(With inputs from Times Of India.)
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