Fears of communal disorder looming
On January 27, 2014, in the dead of night, Kali temple situated at the Hindu crematorium in the village of Ranaghata in Lalpur area, within the jurisdiction of police station of Mathurapur in the district of 24 Paraganas (South), was desecrated and pillaged by a group of crooks. It has come to knowledge, Jaladhar Pramanik, an aged individual, lives in a hut alongside the crematorium and on the fateful night, he was attacked by the group of criminals before anything else. Even if he was thrashed mercilessly, Jaladhar managed to inform others in the village of the dreadful episode. When a group of people came to the temple, it had already been defiled and ransacked.
The enraged mob (joined by many gradually) went on in the hunt for criminals and soon they got hold of Lekman Mollah, son-in-law of Morshet Khan inhabiting the same village, who was identified as a member of the gang by Jaladhar Pramanik also. Lekman was delivered to the local police station who assured Hindus to deal with the situation firmly. Contrary to expectations, on January 29, Lekman returned to his father-in-law’s residence but instead of expressing penitence, he asked Muslim youths aggressively to help him to teach Hindus (liable to deliver him to police) a lesson. The belligerent mob came to the crematorium, warned Hindus and went away chanting anti-Hindu slogans. Terrified Hindus rushed to local political leaders seeking help. Albeit leaders pledged them to convey this incident to the local administration and also to step up safety in the village, nothing has been done yet.
It has been learnt, even if affable police officials in local police station asked Hindus to name the culprits along with Lekman Mollah, they haven’t been able to do due to extreme fright.