Discovery of a slaughtered cow's head inside a Kali temple at Silchar town in Assam on Friday night created communal tension in the area. While the SP of the concerned district has blamed a couple of BJP leaders behind the act, the latter called the SP "liar" and blamed the Congress party for the incident.
"BJP leaders including MLA Dilip Paul and party district president, Kaushik Rai are responsible for creating communal tension. They did it for some vested interests as the Assam election is nearing. In fact, they were responsible for other such incidents in the area in the recent past too," Cachar district SP Rajveer Singh told IB Times India.
On the other side, the concerned MLA, who was detained by the SP for allegedly inciting communal tension, claimed that the SP was under pressure from Assam CM Tarun Gogoi and the Congress party wanted to create a Hindu-Muslim riot. "Congress party always plays such communal games. This SP has no idea how to tackle such situations. He was under the CM's pressure and thus did whatever he was told to do," said Dilip Paul.
Although both the SP and the MLA countered each other's words, they both stated that the act of putting the animal's head inside the temple was for political benefit.
Police has detained six BJP leaders, including MLA Dilip Paul and party district president, Kaushik Rai on charges of inciting communal tension on Saturday when they were staging a protest demonstration in front of the temple. They were later released after they were presented before the court.
"We had detained them on grounds of preventive detention. They were staging a demonstration at a time when Section 144 was imposed. All that we did was completely legal and necessary at that point of time," the SP said.
However, the BJP leader stressed that Section 144 was imposed in the evening but they were protesting in the morning. "They detained us at 11.30 am while, 144 was imposed after five in the evening. The SP had no grounds to detain us. He also misbehaved with us. This SP is a liar. He in fact, apologised to us after he failed to mention any valid ground for detaining us," asserted Dilip Paul.
Meanwhile, the BJP has called a 12-hour bandh in the district on Monday in protest against the SP's action and also demanded the arrest of the main culprits.
A slaughtered cow's head was found inside a temple on the night of Eid al-Adha (Friday) at Silchar, which triggered a fight between two groups of people in the area, in which at least 30 people were injured. Police and CRPF rushed to the spot and arrested seven persons on the same night.
Auto rickshaws were torched in certain areas and the situation was very sensitive till Saturday evening. The situation is under control now but the SP stated that the bandh on Monday can be crucial.
