Agartala, Sept 09: Tripura Police on Thursday handed over the case related to an attack on the office of Pratibadi Kalam, a Bengali daily, to Crime Branch.
Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Arindam Nath apprised a delegation of journalists about the decision. The media delegation led by Agartala Press Club secretary Pranab Sarkar strongly demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.
The newspaper office and the CPI-M state party office were vandalized and multiple cars and motorcycles were burnt to ashes during a political violence that swept through the Tripura capital on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Melarmath area in Agartala and some other parts of the state on Wednesday witnessed arson in multiple CPI-M party offices.
The office of Pratibadi Kalam and CPI-M party office-- both located side by side-- saw unprecedented attacks and the vehicle of editor Anal Roy Chowdhury was vandalized. Three staff of the newspaper office were injured.
The next attack was reported at CPI-M state party office. Multiple vehicles which were parked in front of the party office were burnt to ashes. An attempt of arsoning in the CPI-M party office was also reported.
According to some eye witnesses, the attackers were part of a BJP protest rally. According to many people, the state never saw such an attack on any newspaper office before.
Earlier, some incidents were there but these were not to such scale. The situation turned volatile within a few minutes triggering panic among the common people. All that happened in the presence of a large deployment of police and TSR personnel. The policemen present at the scene continued to witness the whole incident like mute spectators.
Union Minister of State Pratima Bhowmik, ICA Minister Sushanta Chowdhury, Opposition Leader Manik Sarkar, CPI-M leader Pabitra Kar, TMC leader Sushmita Dev and many others visited the Pratibadi Kalam office soon after the incident-- they condemned the incident and expressed solidarity.
The attack on the media house invited wide criticism and condemnation from all sections of the society. Several media organizations strongly condemned the incident. A delegation of Agartala Press Club led by secretary Pranab Sarkar also visited the newspaper office and then met the SDPO Sadar on deputation. They demanded immediate action against the attackers.
The journalists’ delegation gave a twelve-hour ultimatum to police for arresting the culprits.
Late on Wednesday night, several CPI-M party offices in and around the city and some other parts-- Kamalpur, Gandacherra, Rahimpur in Sonamura and Natun Nagar were also burnt down.