Recent Bengal riots were 'ochestrated, instigated': fact-finding team report

The interim report of the Fact-Finding Committee on Monday revealed that the recent incidents of violence in Howrah, Hooghly, and Rishra, among other areas of West Bengal, were 'pre-planned, orchestrated and instigated.'

Earlier on April 8, a six-member team of an NGO was stopped by the police from visiting the violence-hit areas of Hooghly district.

The 'fact-finding' team, led by retired Patna High Court judge L Narasimha Reddy, was stopped near Konnagar when they were on the way to Serampore and Rishra as prohibitory orders were still imposed in the area, a police officer said.

"We cannot allow people to visit these areas as prohibitory orders are still in place," he said.

The team is scheduled to visit Shibpur in Howrah district on Sunday, and also seeking to meet state Home Secretary BP Gopalika over the violence that rocked these areas during Ram Navami.

The development comes in the wake of a series of incidents of communal violence reported in Bengal's Howrah and Hooghly districts on the occasion of Ram Navami on March 30-April 1.

Subsequently, central forces were deployed in three districts of Hooghly, Barrackpore, and Kolkata to assist the state police in maintaining law and order during Hanuman Jayanti celebrations.