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ShareKOLKATA: The anatomy of the riots that erupted on the streets of Kolkata on Wednesday, rattling the state administration, had clear hallmarks of scrupulous planning done over many days.
The binding force among the three organisations, that acted as agent provocateurs to thousands of young rioters from the minority community, was their shared anti-Leftism.
Alarmed by the fact that the rioters came together to express their anti-government angst and not entirely because of communalism, CPI(M) has now been forced to rush its minority leaders to placate the community and arrest their dwindling support in the wake of Nandigram and Taslima issues.
Both CPI(M) and police intelligence failed to anticipate the violence that was planned over days and executed with such precision that it forced the deployment of the Army.
The epicentre of planning and execution of the riots was Ripon Street in central Kolkata. Even though leaders of All-India Minority Forum, Jamait-e-Ulema-I-Hind and Furfura Sharif Muzadeedia Ananth Foundation did not appear on the frontlines, they covertly directed their supporters, mostly teenagers and youth, to stockpile brickbats and soda bottles on rooftops of houses along Ripon Street.
Hoarded over many days, the bricks were gathered from the large number of construction sites in the neighbourhood, while local pan shops provided soda bottles.
"We were told to ensure we did not run out of bricks. Our specific instructions were to attack policemen from rooftops after we are evicted from the main roads.
We do not want to target any common man. Yesterday was just the beginning. Wait and see what happens in the coming days," said Razzak, a youth in his early twenties. Asked if he had read Taslima Nasrin, he said, "No, but I have heard she has written bad things about our religion. And lot of people of our faith has been killed in Nandigram."
"This government has ignored our views about Taslima for long. We do not want to harm her, but we do not want her to live here and pollute its secular tradition by spewing venom against our religion.
The government has also attacked our people in Nandigram," said Jamaluddin, a middle-aged supporter of Jamait. We have to teach Buddha a lesson," he said. A credo shared by all these organisations.
