Agartala: The principal opposition party of Tripura, CPI(M), on Thursday called for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the January 10 communal violence at Shimultala in Tripura’s Fatikroy assembly constituency.
In addition, Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury also presented a six-point charter of demands regarding the incident.
Speaking at a press conference at the CPI(M) state headquarters, Chaudhury, who is also a politburo member of the party, said he had urged Chief Secretary J.K. Sinha to constitute an SIT headed by a senior police officer to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure that those responsible were identified and punished.
The violence occurred under the jurisdiction of the Fatikroy police station following a dispute between two groups over the collection of subscriptions for a local festival. Chaudhury said at least six people were injured and around 15 families were affected in the incident.
He said he had submitted a six-point charter of demands to the state administration aimed at restoring normalcy in Shimultala village. Among the measures sought were the setting up of a temporary police picket in the area and the initiation of confidence-building steps to enable members of affected Muslim families, particularly youths who had gone into hiding fearing further violence or police action, to return home safely.
Chaudhury added that more than 10 days after the incident, tension continued to prevail, alleging that “trouble-mongers” were visiting the area to provoke unrest, making a sustained security presence necessary.
Raising concerns over relief, he said 11 families had received Rs 5,000 each as assistance, which he described as inadequate. He stated that 15 families had suffered losses, including the destruction of homes, haystacks, vehicles, and agricultural equipment, and called for a proper assessment followed by compensation, housing support, and access to low-interest loans.
He also demanded the immediate release of five persons from victim families who were among the 13 arrested on charges of rioting, maintaining that they were innocent. Chaudhury stressed that proactive steps were needed to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.
Related
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘609578899588292’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
