Swarajya Exclusive: Intel Reports Contradict Mamata Banerjee’s Claims About ‘Outsider Role’ In Anti-Hindu Riots In Bengal

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that ‘outsiders’ were involved in the recent anti-Hindu riots in Murshidabad and some other areas of Bengal. 

Banerjee had, while addressing a large gathering of Muslim community leaders last week, even accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Border Security Force (BSF) of engineering the riots. 

Her contention was that people from Bangladesh and other states entered Bengal and led the riots. She repeated her allegations in an ‘open letter’ to the people of Bengal last weekend. 

However, preliminary investigations by central intelligence agencies have discounted the role of outsiders. 

Initial reports by these agencies, which are also corroborated by preliminary probes by the state police, have pinned the blame for the riots exclusively on local Muslim clerics for spreading falsehoods about the Waqf Amendment Act and inciting the riots. 

The central agencies have also found out that a huge number of already radicalised young Muslim men in Murshidabad and other areas that witnessed attacks on Hindus had been bombarded with incitements on social media platforms. 

The central agencies have revealed that state intelligence agencies and the police were clueless about anger swelling up amongst Muslims due to falsehoods spread about the recently-enacted amendments to the Waqf Act. 

State intelligence agencies and the local police also had no idea about the incitements on social media calling for Muslims to stage violent protests. 

But what is much more alarming is the finding by the central agencies that large sections of Muslim men and women in Malda, Murshidabad and other areas of Bengal have been highly radicalised and many have been indoctrinated into jihadi philosophy. 

The role of local clerics

Central intelligence agencies have found out that many local Muslim clerics in areas like Samsherganj which witnessed large scale violence against Hindus had been carrying out a sustained campaign against the Waqf Act amendments since early April. 

“The campaign against the new Waqf Act picked up pace once the bill was taken up for discussion in Parliament. But it was launched months ago even when the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was discussing the bill,” a top officer of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) told Swarajya. 

Local clerics, almost all of them Deobandis (passouts from Darul Uloom Deoband which advocates a very hardline version of Islam), had been telling the congregations in their mosques that the amendments would take away many fundamental rights of Muslims. 

“Since the JPC deliberations started, sermons were delivered at mosques in many parts of Bengal, especially in the districts along the border with Bangladesh, that the bill would take away properties of Muslims. The clerics carried out a false campaign that lands on which mosques and idgahs have been built, and also Muslim burial sites, would be confiscated by the Union government. Muslims were also told by the clerics that even their ancestral lands would be taken away,” the senior IB officer who was briefed about the findings told Swarajya. 

Many Muslims fell victim to this false and provocative campaign. Illiteracy and having little access to genuine sources of information made them even more vulnerable to disinformation. Also, suspect the intelligence agencies, local politicians encouraged this propaganda for their immediate political interests. 

The top IB officer said that clerics even went to madrassas and told youngsters studying there that the bill would put ‘Islam in danger’ in India. 

The provision for inclusion on non-Muslims in Waqf and Auqaf Boards was portrayed as another move targeted at Muslims. 

“Clerics delivered sermons in many mosques that Hindus would become the owners of Waqf properties and would order demolition of mosques. They said even the famous 19th century Hazarduari Palace (in Murshidabad) built by the Nawab of Bengal would be taken over and converted into a hotel where pork would be served. Other Muslim monuments would also be taken over and demolished to make way for temples, the clerics told their congregations,” said the IB officer. 

The clerics, while carrying out this fake and provocative campaign, also urged Muslims to register their strong opposition to the Bill. 

“They (the clerics) said that if the Bill is passed by Parliament, violent protests should be launched. They said that only violence will make the government realise that the move to amend the Waqf Act was a mistake. There was direct provocation from the clerics,” the officer said. 

Gullible Muslims were told that if the amendments to the Waqf Act were not opposed strongly and the Union government forced to drop them, it will embolden the BJP to roll out an exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal and a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) throughout the country. 

“Muslims were told that the NRC exercise would strike their names off the voters’ lists and disenfranchise them, and make them foreigners who would then be pushed out of India. Muslim children would be put in jails and asked to give up their religion. Muslims will become worse than slaves and would lose all their rights. This sort of vicious propaganda by the clerics enraged the Muslim populace in Bengal,” said another officer of the IB who read some transcripts of sermons by Muslim clerics at mosques in Murshidabad. 

The clerics also raised the UCC bogey and said that it would strip Muslims of their fundamental and religious rights. 

Many clerics were also guilty of launching a hate campaign against Hindus, equating the community with the BJP. 

“A number of Muslim clerics spread the word covertly that since the BJP was a party of and for the Hindus, attacking Hindus and harming them (Hindus) would draw the attention of the BJP government at the centre. That is why the ire against the Waqf Act was directed against Hindus,” the IB officer explained. 

Added to the propaganda by the clerics was chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s own provocations. She had been issuing statements over the past couple of months that the Waqf Bill would snatch the rights of Muslims and endanger Muslim properties. 

Banerjee had been repeatedly saying that the Waqf Bill would pave the way for interference in religious affairs of Muslims. She had been telling Muslims that Waqf properties would be snatched away by the BJP government at the Centre. 

“Mamata Banerjee also carried out a false propaganda campaign against the Waqf Bill and instilled fear and anger in the minds of many Muslims. She did all that only to cement her position among Muslims and portray herself as a saviour of Muslims by falsely proclaiming that she would not allow the implementation of the new Act in Bengal,” BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari told Swarajya. 

Banerjee’s pronouncements also added to the fear and anger amongst Muslims. Her statements on the Waqf Bill actually served to corroborate what the hardline clerics had been saying, and so they (Mamata’s statements) acted as official endorsement for the fake propaganda that lands of mosques, idgahs and burial sites, as well as other Waqf properties, would be taken over by the government. 

Many Muslim MLAs and netas belonging to the Trinamool amplified the campaign against the Waqf Bill and did their bit to foment anger and outrage amongst Muslims. 

Police and state intelligence failure

IB officials said that there was complete failure on the part of state intelligence agencies and the local police to sense the anger building up amongst Muslims. 

Had the state intelligence agencies and local police done their job properly, steps could have been taken to counter the false propaganda campaign against the Waqf Bill and douse the anger. 

“The violence took the local police by complete surprise. But that should not have been the case. There were enough warning signals. A watch should have been kept on the provocative and hateful sermons that were delivered by the clerics. The local police should have got feedback about what was going on from their sources within the Muslim community. But none of that happened,” the top IB officer said. 

This failure, said a senior Bengal cadre IPS officer who served in senior positions in the state police force and retired from a top post in a central armed police force (CAPF), can be directly attributed to Mamata Banerjee’s Muslim appeasement policy.

“This appeasement policy forces local police and state intel to adopt a hands-off policy towards Muslims. The feeling among police officers at the local thana level is that keeping tabs on the Muslim community and even cultivating sources within the community is unnecessary and would invite censure from ruling party politicians,” the former police officer told Swarajya. 

“Mamata Banerjee prefers to rely on her own party MLAs and functionaries belonging to the Muslim community to get information on what’s happening inside the community. The perception among the state police officers is that any proactive efforts to gather information on Muslim affairs or what’s being taught in the madrassas or preached in the masjids will not be looked upon favourably by the ruling dispensation and would even invite punitive action against police officers,” said the retired IPS officer. 

This has led to the local police and state intelligence having no ‘assets’ within the Muslim community. 

Also, the police at the ground level have strict instructions against acting without prior approval from their seniors against any law violation or illegal acts by members of the Muslim community. 

Junior police officers who had taken action in the past against members of the community who violated laws were censured and even punished with transfers to remote places far away from their homes. 

“That’s why at the thana level, police officers prefer to remain detached from what is happening within the Muslim community. Even if they have information, they prefer not to share it for fear of inviting censure. This has led to a complete breakdown of intelligence,” he added. 

Why the false campaign worked

Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports over the past decade have been warning of growing radicalisation of Muslims in Bengal, especially those living in the border districts.

The crackdown launched by Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh on that country’s Islamists since she came to power in 2008 led to a huge number of them entering Bengal illegally and settling down here. 

“These hardline Islamists from Bangladesh started delivering hate-filled and provocative sermons at religious gatherings and at mosques and madrassas. Over time, they succeeded in radicalising a large number of Muslim men and sowing a deep-seated hatred for kafirs among them,” the top IB officer said. 

This is corroborated by the Bengal-cadre retired IPS officer. “The radicalisation of a large section of Muslims in Bengal is an indisputable fact that poses dangerous consequences and threatens the security of the country. In pockets of many Muslim-majority areas, especially in Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Nadia and the two 24 Parganas districts, the Sharia law prevails. It is an alarming situation,” said the retired police officer. 

The fertile ground for provocation, thus, already existed. “The huge mass of radicalised Muslim men could thus be easily swayed by false propaganda against the Waqf Bill to indulge in senseless violence,” the IB officer said. 

He added that a search of mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices of many Muslim men in some districts of Bengal will reveal how they have been brainwashed by Islamist hardliners.

The IB officer made a cryptic observation: “There are enough hardline, radical Islamists who stew in hatred in Bengal itself. There is no need for trouble-makers to come in from Bangladesh or other states to lead riots in Bengal”. 

This repudiates Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim that ‘outsiders’ sneaked in to Bengal and led the anti-Hindu riots here.