Detained TMC members sits on airport conveyer belts

Trinamool Congress delegation has gone to survey the condition in Assam only to be detained by the airport officials.

A Trinamul Congress (TMC) delegation which arrived in Silchar on Thursday to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of draft NRC was detained at the airport.

Sources said a seven-member TMC delegation, comprising MPs Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Mamata Balathakur, Nadimul Haque and Arpita Ghosh and MLA Mahua Mitra, was stopped by Cachar deputy commissioner S. Lakshmanan and police officials after the aircraft landed at 1.40 pm at the airport in Cachar district. The officials could not show proper documents. Lakshmanan told them because of law and order issues. We demanded to know whether there was a restraining order. Even journalists were roughed up. , especially during the ongoing drive for concluding the process of NRC in the state., banning assembly of five or more persons civil. Asked if the TMC members would be arrested if they refuse to go back, he said, “We will go as per law”.

The visit by the delegation on Thursday was marred with allegations of assault and manhandling. While the Assam Directorate General of Police (DGP) claimed two constables suffered injuries after being “assaulted” by Moitra, the TMC has said its members were “roughed up” at the airport.

TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday blamed the BJP for the incident. “Why is the Assam government behaving like this, along with the Centre? This is a political vendetta. The BJP only has muscle power.”

She added, “The police have roughed up the members, even the female members. Four female MPs and one female MLA besides a state minister and our party’s chief whip in Rajya Sabha – all of them were subjected to this uncalled-for behavior.”

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TMC DELEGATION RETURNS HOME

Six of the eight-member Trinamool Congress delegation left Assam on Friday morning after overnight detention at Silchar airport, an official said.

Two others, MPs Mamatabala Thakur and Arpita Ghosh, would leave the state later in the day, Cachar district Deputy Commissioner S Lakshmanan said.

“We are going back. The police have not allowed us to go out. We requested them several times but they refused. We spent the night in three rooms at the airport,” said Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy.

The BJP, which rules Assam, has accused Banerjee of dividing communities with her statements and of politicising the NRC.