Kolkata, Apr 12 (PTI) Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday sought transfer of investigation into alleged vandalism and destruction of railway property by agitators protesting the Waqf (Amendment) Act to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

In a letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the BJP leader drew his attention to vandalism at various railway stations in Murshidabad district during violent protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act.

“I humbly request that the investigation into these acts of vandalism be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA),” Adhikari said in a letter to the Railway minister.

He wrote that given the sensitive nature of the violent protests and because Murshidabad district borders Bangladesh, NIA is perfectly suited to hold the investigation into such violence.

“Such a step would help uncover the true faces of the masterminds conspiring from behind the scenes, identify the perpetrators and future occurrences,” Adhikari wrote.

Train services were disrupted for about six hours in the New Farakka-Azimganj section of Eastern Railway on Friday owing to obstruction and vandalism by a large group of people between Dhuliandanga-Nimtita stations in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.

Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar on Saturday said that no hooliganism will be tolerated and any attempt to create disturbance will be dealt with strongly.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Jawed Shamim said that 118 arrests have so far been made and four rounds were fired by the district police injuring two persons to deal with violence that erupted at some places in Murshidabad district.

Alleging that a particular community was being targeted by the protesters, BJP West Bengal state president Sukanta Majumdar claimed that internet and other communication systems have been suspended in the affected areas, thus leaving the sufferers of violence without any mode of communicating their plight.

He questioned the connection between opposition to the Waqf (Amendment) Act and the alleged targeting of homes, vehicles and shops of a particular section of people.

“We suspect that a major fundamentalist terrorist group may be instigating this from behind the scenes,” Majumdar, also Union Minister of State for Education, wrote in his X handle.

Taking a dig at Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh asked why he was not speaking out about the violence in Murshidabad.

“Abhishek Banerjee had said that those who vandalise hospitals, vehicles and police outposts should be shot in the head. Where are such police officers, they should now be sent to Murshidabad to control the situation,” Ghosh said.

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien accused the BJP of “stoking fires of communalism across various states” after passing the Waqf Bill “in the dead of night in Parliament.” “This is a classic playbook of BJP-RSS,” he wrote in his X handle. PTI AMR RG