Basirhat violence: West Bengal police detain BJP lawmakers for trying to visit riot-hit areas

Darjeeling: A BJP central team comprising of Meenakshi Lekhi, Om Mathur and Satyapal Singh was on Saturday stopped and detained by the West Bengal police from visiting the riot-hit Basirhat in the state. 

West Bengal's Basirhat has been barricaded to keep out political parties after clashes broke out between members of two communities at Baduria in the Basirhat sub-division of North 24-Parganas earlier this week over an objectionable Facebook post by a Class XI student who has been arrested.

The West Bengal government said the situation was under control in Baduria, Swarupnagar, Deganga and Basirhat, which had witnessed violence. Prohibitory orders are in force there.

On Thursday BJP chief Amit Shah constituted a team, comprising Om Mathur, Meenakshi Lekhi, Satyapal Singh, to visit the town and submit a report to the party president.

The police cordoned off the area yesterday, thus denying access BJP, Left and Congress delegations that were stopped at various points, such as Asoknagar, Deganga and Michael Nagar.

The police took the prohibitory step a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to political parties to stay away from Basirhat before normality returned to the area.