Bengal Riot Victims' Camp Has Been Turned Into A Ghetto

The victims complained of horrific living conditions, lack of medicines, baby food and proper food.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Hindus who fled their homes following anti-Waqf riots in Murshidabad have narrated horrific tales of woe to the members of the National Commission for Women (NCW) which rushed a four-member team to investigate the prevailing conditions.

On Friday and Saturday, the team met riot victims who crossed over the Hooghly river from the worst-hit Dhuliyan and Samsherganj areas in Murshidabad to take shelter in the neighbouring district of Malda. They also recounted how the Mamata Banerjee administration refused to take preventive action. Rather, they worked overtime to increase the miseries of those who fled their homes and took shelter in a makeshift camp.

The victims complained of horrific living conditions, lack of medicines, baby food and proper food at the camp. The National Human Rights Commission also sent a fact-finding team.

Hundreds of people from Murshidabad are housed in makeshift relief camps, including the Par Lalpur High School camp in Baishnabnagar in Malda. National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar, accompanied with member Archana Majumdar, and two other colleagues met the families affected by the Murshidabad violence at the shelter camp.

"The situation is extremely distressing. We feel their pain and suffering," Rahatkar said.

Vijaya Rahatkar reached the residence of the father and son duo in Jafrabad, who were killed in the violence. Rahatkar said: "These people are in so much pain, that I am speechless right now. I don't have the words to describe their pain. The suffering these people are going through is inhuman. We will put their demands in front of the government."