Paramilitary forces to be deployed in Bengal

The West Bengal government on Wednesday based on the directions of the Calcutta high court decided to deploy paramilitary forces in three districts of the state, including Hooghly, Barrackpore and Kolkata ahead of Hanuman Jayanti celebrations on Thursday, a senior official privy to the matter said. Earlier in the day, the high court had directed the state government to seek assistance of paramilitary from the Centre during the Hanuman Jayanti celebrations “in order to avoid any breach of peace.” The division bench of acting chief justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya in an order stated: “Considering the largeness of the issue and in order to avoid any breach of peace, the state government should requisition the assistance of paramilitary forces from the central government. The assistance of the paramilitary forces will definitely help the state police.” Violent clashes had broken out in Howrah, Hooghly and Uttar Dinajpur districts last week and again earlier this week centering around the Ram Navami celebrations. “There will be an ample number of state police forces deployed at sensitive areas in the state and also at those places where violence was witnessed recently, Apart from that, we have decided to deploy three companies of paramilitary forces in Kolkata, Hooghly and Barrackpore,” an official said.“We will abide by the high court orders,” said a senior officer of Kolkata police.