Bengal BJP demands NIA probe into attack on party MP, MLA in Jalpaiguri

Kolkata: West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Tuesday demanded an NIA investigation into the assault on party MP Khagen Murmu and MLA Sankar Ghosh during their visit to the flood and landslide-hit Nagrakata area in Jalpaiguri district a day ago.

Both Murmu and Ghosh are currently undergoing treatment at a private medical facility in Siliguri.

"We demand an NIA investigation into the attack on Murmu and Ghosh," the state BJP president said while addressing a press conference here.

Bhattacharya termed the attack on Murmu, the BJP's MP from Maldaha Uttar, and Ghosh, the Siliguti MLA and the party chief whip in the West Bengal assembly, as "pre-planned".

He alleged that the two BJP leaders were attacked to "create an atmosphere of terror and division on religious lines among people of north Bengal".

Alleging that the attack was perpetrated by illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Rohingyas, the BJP state president claimed that the state police had not taken any action to prevent the assault.

"The Trinamool Congress is engineering attacks at various places to create a fear psychosis among people before the initiation of special intensive revision of electoral rolls," Bhattacharya claimed.

"If anyone thinks that by attacking BJP parliamentarians and legislators they can create fear among our workers, they are mistaken," Bhattacharya asserted.