Kolkata, Apr 20 (PTI) Calling upon the West Bengal government to “act urgently” to address the grievances of the riot-hit people of Murshidabad district, particularly women, National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar on Sunday said the panel is preparing a report which will be submitted soon to the Centre with copies to top state officials.

Speaking with reporters at a Kolkata hotel, Rahatkar said that in the past two days, she and other panel members met many women, their families and children, and the torture and suffering they faced was “beyond imagination, having left a deep scar in their minds which need to be healed and addressed on an urgent basis with a humanitarian approach”.

Advocating confidence-building measures by the state administration, she said that the responsibility of bringing peace lies with the state government.

The NCW chief said the commission is preparing a report incorporating the views of all those women, who narrated their ordeal and credited forces like the BSF for saving their lives and honour.

The report will be submitted to the Centre and copies will be sent to the DGP and chief secretary of West Bengal soon, she said.

To a question about women demanding a Border Security Force (BSF) camp in the affected area, she said, “Yes that is what many of them said. There is an air of fear and insecurity in the area. We will certainly incorporate their views in our report.” Calling upon the state government “to act promptly and urgently to address the pains of these people”, she said, “Give them justice, wipe their tears, make arrangements for immediate compensation to make up for their losses (damage to properties and loot of belongings).” Asking for proper security and instilling a sense of confidence among these violence-affected people, she said that it is the “moral duty of the state government to do its job”.

“They are our own people, they are daughters of this state. What they went through is beyond words. They saw the houses, which they built with their hard-earned money, get shattered and burnt down; they were assaulted, threatened and driven out, women were tortured and chased away from their homes, from the villages they lived in for years. None went to meet them in all those days. They were asking me what their fault was,” she said.

“The pain of the women who were dragged from their homes, brutally attacked and threatened in the most inhuman manner is unimaginable. Some were even told to send their daughters to be raped,” she said.

The NCW chief said that she heard about incidents of a woman running for her life with her four-day-old baby and newlyweds fleeing their houses with their belongings getting looted during the violence.

“As a woman, I felt disturbed as we went around relief camps in Murshidabad and Malda for two days. I tried to console them; we told them the entire country is with them. Their minds are shattered and we told them not to lose their mental strength,” Rahatkar said.

About allegations by TMC leaders that the commission was acting at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre and questions about why the panel did not visit Manipur and other BJP-ruled states when such incidents took place there in the past, she said, “All I will say is that I don’t want to indulge in politics. I came here to be on the side of tortured sisters.” Urging those who make such comments to “not divert people from the main issue”, she added, “Why don’t these critics themselves meet those women and stand with them to feel their agony and what they felt. Aren’t they our own people?” “Why don’t these critics try to find the answer about why this (violence) happened? You need to understand their pain,” she said.

She wondered why the State Women’s Commission had not yet visited the affected areas yet.

“Please meet the mother who lost her husband and son. Express sympathy,” she said.

Advocating confidence-building measures by the state administration, she said, “The responsibility of bringing peace lies with the state government.” About West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement that the BJP and its allies have become aggressive and initiated a vicious “false campaign” in the state, Rahatkar said, “I haven’t seen or read the comments of the CM. The only thing I feel is that the state government should urgently address their problem and instill a sense of security.” On Saturday, during her visit to Betbari, Dhulian, Zafrabad and other riot-hit areas in Murshidabad, Rahatkar had said, “I was dumbfounded by the agony these women had to suffer. What they went through during the violence is beyond imagination.” The villagers were seen holding placards that displayed messages like ‘We don’t want Lakshmir Bhandar, we want BSF camp. We want security’.

On Friday, the NCW team visited relief camps in Malda’s Baishnabnagar sheltering the displaced riot-affected people of adjacent Murshidabad district.

The NCW had earlier taken suo motu cognisance of the violence that took place in Samserganj, Suti, Dhulian, and Jangipur areas of Murshidabad on April 11 and 12.

Three people were killed and hundreds rendered homeless during the clashes, which occurred in Muslim-majority Murshidabad, amid protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act. PTI SUS RG ACD