Trinamool Congress calls upon police to be ''neutral''

Kolkata, Oct 20 (UNI) Amidst a premonition of violence, the Trinamool Congress-sponsored "Lalbazar siege" today ended peacefully with a clarion call to the state police to remain "neutral." Opposition leader in the Assembly Partha Chatterjee, who along with other senior Trinammol leaders and a large number of party workers gathered near the police headquarters, decided not to proceed towards Lalbazar and resort to any law violation programme.

Addressing the party workers, Mr Chatterjee accused police of adopting partial attitude towards the Opposition at the behest of the CPI(M)-led Left Front government belying the expectations of the common masses in regard to their duties to maintain peace and security.

Mr Chatterjee alleged that police were involved in a number of cases, including Rizwanur Rahman murder issue and ration scam, and had failed to contain violence in Dinhata, Basanti and Nandigram.

The police force in West Bengal had stooped so low that they had forgotten to perform their duties, he observed and said it was an irony that instead of protecting the people from any onslaught police were perpetuating attacks on them.

Mr Chatterjee threatened that such "heinous acts" would engineer unrest in the state and dampen the prevailing spirit of festivals.

Earlier, a number of party processions from different parts of the city converged near Lalbazar, while about 10,000 police personnel were deployed to prevent any untoward incident.

The protest demonstration of the Trinamool Congress was organised to denounce the arrest of a party MLA's brother, who was held responsible for engineering violence at Charu Market in south Kolkata just on the eve of the Durga Puja.

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