Balasore: Around 300 people from Odisha’s Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts, who were allegedly attacked and detained by locals in West Bengal’s Medinipur, returned home late on Tuesday.
The attack is being suspected to be the fallout of alleged assault of migrant labourers from West Bengal in Odisha on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.
“Now our people are safe. They were attacked by some terrorists in West Bengal’s Medinipur. As soon as I received the information, I spoke to the CM after which I approached the SP, DM, and DG. The situation is under control. And I have asked the administration to drop the people of Odisha off till the border, Laxmannath toll gate, with proper escort…,They were earlier kept at a police station. Extra force was used to rescue people travelling in a bus detained at a village… they were then shifted to a cyclone shelter… they are under police cordon,” Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi earlier told ANI.
According to sources, the 300-0dd people from Odisha had travelled to Kharika village under Keshpur police limits for treatment by a local healer. They were attacked on their way back and the buses and SUVs in which they were travelling were also damaged. Kehspur police soon rescued the Odias but the attackers gheraoed the police station and went on a rampage, forcing them to seek military assistance.
Some passengers from Nilagiri block informed Sarangi about the incident and he spoke to CM Mohan Majhi, seeking his intervention. Following while, special buses were arranged to bring them to Laxmannath toll gate from where Odisha police facilitated their return home.
“They damaged the windshield of the buses. Police rescued us but the locals soon gheraoed the police station where we were being put up. They detained us over the alleged attack on some workers from Bengal in Odisha on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals,” Sandeep Panigrahi, one of the tourists stuck in West Bengal, told the media.
On August 10, several workers of the BJP’s youth wing — Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha — rounded up 34 people at a construction site in Odisha’s Sambalpur district and handed them over to the local police, suspecting them to be Bangladeshi nationals who infiltrated into India amid the ongoing crisis in the neighbouring country. About 4,000 workers returned to Bengal amid such attacks also reported from Jagatsinghpur’s Naugaon.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dialled Majhi on August 11, expressing concern over alleged torture of the migrant labourers from Bengal. She also urged the labourers from the state to return to West Bengal as soon as possible and grab the opportunities available here
A demonstration was also held outside the Utkal Bhawan in central Kolkata against the alleged assault.
