Baduria riot refers to incidents of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in the

Baduria Baduria is a city and a municipality in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Geography Location Baduria is located at . It has an average elevation of 8 metres (26 feet). Area ove ...

town in

Basirhat subdivision Basirhat subdivision is an administrative subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. History In 1757, the East India Company obtained the ''zamindari'' or land-holders rights of the 24 Parganas Zamindari ...

of the

North 24 Parganas district North 24 Parganas (abv. 24 PGS (N)) or sometimes North Twenty Four Parganas is a district in southern West Bengal, of eastern India. North 24 Parganas extends in the tropical zone from latitude 22° 11′ 6″ north to 23° 15′ 2″ north and f ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

state of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Background

Tensions started rising after a social media post on

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

and

Kaaba The Kaaba (, ), also spelled Ka'bah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah ( ar, ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, lit=Honored Ka'bah, links=no, translit=al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah), is a building at the c ...

by a 17-year-old student on 2 July 2017. The images were seen as objectionable and went viral in

. He was later arrested. It is claimed that this violence was an outcome of local outrage of the Muslim groups, but according to some news sources and local media, villagers of Baduria, Basirhat and of its neighborhood claimed the rioters were outsiders.

Riots

Following the post made on 2 July by the school boy, a mob of an estimated 5,000 people blockaded the Baduria police station, demanding that the accused be brought before the crowd. The post also resulted in an arson attack on the accused's house. He was arrested on the evening of 3 July 2017. The Baduria police station was attacked and set ablaze along with several police vehicles on the night of 3 July. A violent mob put up road blockades at several places and attacked members of other community, besides destroying many shops. Muslim mobs set upon shops and houses belonging to Hindus in Baduria,

Swarupnagar Swarupnagar is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Geography Swarupnagar is located at . Swarupnagar CD Block is bounded by ...

and Taki.

Rath Yatra Ratha Yatra (), or Chariot festival, is any public procession in a chariot. The term particularly refers to the annual Ratha Yatra in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other East Indian states, particularly the Odia festival that involve a ...

s at several places were attacked. Violent clashes were triggered between the two communities of Basirhat. The

Union government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

deployed four

Border Security Force The Border Security Force (BSF) is India's border guarding organisation on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) of India, and was raised in the wake of the 1965 war on 1 December 1 ...

(BSF) companies containing a total of 400 personnel to check the violence in the region.

Section 144 Unlawful assembly is a legal term to describe a group of people with the mutual intent of deliberate disturbance of the peace. If the group is about to start an act of disturbance, it is termed a rout; if the disturbance is commenced, it is then ter ...

was imposed while the internet services were suspended. In retaliatory attacks on 6 July, Hindu mobs attacked a

dargah A dargah ( fa, درگاه ''dargâh'' or ''dargah'', Turkish: ''dergâh'', Hindustani: ''dargah'' दरगाह درگاہ, bn, দরগাহ ''dorgah'') is a shrine or tomb built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often ...

and vandalised shops and houses in addition to clashing with the police. The office of a local TMC leader also comes under attack. On July 7, several Hindu temples were attacked by a Muslim mob of about 70-90 people. They also allegedly attacked and harassed Hindu families. About 25 people including 20 policemen were reported to have been injured in the violence. The house and party office of a local TMC MLA Dipendu Biswas was also set on fire by the rioters. A 65 year old died after being stabbed by the rioter mobs in the clashes while trying to return home.

Fake news and provocative statements

Vijeta Malik who is reported to be the Haryana State Executive Member of

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

allegedly posted a well-known scene of a Bhojpuri movie ''

Aurat Khilona Nahi Aurat may refer to: Aurat (word), the Arabic word for woman Movements * Aurat March, a women's procession walk in Pakistan * Aurat Foundation, a women's rights organization in Delhi, India Films * ''Aurat'' (1940 film), an Indian film direc ...

'' and cited it as an incident in Baduaria clashes where Hindu women were severely abused and the crowd just watched. This fake news went viral. Despite several appeals from Kolkata and West Bengal Police, sharing of fake news continued and tensions were exacerbated.

Involvement of BJP leaders

One

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

-based citizen Bhabotosh Chatterjee was arrested for sharing fake news and spreading communal hatred over the internet, and another three were held for spreading fake news via multiple social media profiles. In July, two

FIRs Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely related to ...

were lodged against a Delhi-based

leader Nupur Sharma for sharing fake news while the BJP IT cell secretary Tarun Sengupta was arrested in

Asansol Asansol is a (Tier-II) metropolitan city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the second largest and most populated city of West Bengal and the 33rd largest urban agglomeration in India. Asansol is the district headquarters of Paschim Bar ...

for posting ‘fake’ video on social media. BJP MLA T. Raja Singh Lodh made a statement asking Hindus to respond "as they did in Gujarat, to prevent Bengal from becoming Bangladesh, or face being banished as they were from Kashmir". The West Bengal Government ordered a judiciary inquiry on the fake news propaganda and the causes of the Baduria incident. While responding to a

PIL Public Image Ltd (abbreviated and stylized as PiL) are an English post-punk band (and incorporated limited company) formed by singer John Lydon (previously known as the singer of Sex Pistols), guitarist Keith Levene, bassist Jah Wobble, and dr ...

filed in the Calcutta High Court, the State stated that around 71 people had been arrested and a total of 86 cases had been registered with the police in this matter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baduria riots 2017 murders in India 2017 riots Crime in West Bengal 2010s in West Bengal July 2017 crimes in Asia July 2017 events in India North 24 Parganas district Politico-Religious violence in West Bengal Religious riots Riots and civil disorder in India Religiously motivated violence in India Anti-Muslim violence in India Persecution of Hindus