Protests Sweep Across North Bengal Over Murder Of Hindu Minor Girl

North Bengal is on the boil over the murder of a Hindu minor girl allegedly by a Muslim man in Siliguri earlier this week. 

The man is suspected to have attempted to rape her and bludgeoned her when she resisted and raised an alarm. 

The girl, a Class 11 student, was returning home in Matigara in Siliguri on Monday (21 August) afternoon after classes, when she was lured by the 22-year-old Muslim man, Mohammad Abbas, and taken to a lonely place. 

The body of the victim, her head smashed and face beyond recognition, was recovered soon after the heinous murder from a sparsely-populated area in Jyoti Nagar area of Khaprail in Siliguri. 

A local girl who was out on an errand heard the victim’s cries for help and alerted her family members and neighbours who rushed to the spot. They rushed the victim to a hospital, but she died on the way.

Cops of the Matigara police station acted promptly and launched investigations immediately after they were informed. 

After scanning CCTV footage and talking to their sources, the police arrested Mohammad Abbas, a resident of Lenin Colony on the banks of the Balasan river that flows through the western part of Siliguri, within six hours. 

The accused is married and has a child. He is a daily wage earner and is said to be of suspected nationality. 

The police are yet to reveal the contents of the post-mortem examination report and have not confirmed if the man had attempted to rape the minor girl before murdering her. 

The brutal murder of the girl belonging to the Gorkha community has evoked shock and outrage throughout North Bengal. 

Protests have erupted all over the region since Tuesday (22 August) demanding the death penalty for the accused. 

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) called a 12-hour bandh in Siliguri city on Thursday (24 August). The bandh was successful as shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed. 

The Trinamool Congress tried to foil the bandh by forcing shops in some markets to remain open. Siliguri Mayor Gautam Deb, who is a senior Trinamool leader, went around the city, allegedly accompanied by an army of goons, to force shops to open. But his attempts were largely unsuccessful. 

The Gorkha Sewa Sena, a newly-formed social outfit, has called for a 12-hour shutdown in the hills of North Bengal on Saturday (26 August). 

A large mob ransacked the accused’s shanty at Lenin Colony Thursday (24 August) following which a strong police contingent was deployed in the area. 

According to locals, the victim had left the school premises along with a classmate after classes got over at 4pm. The victim’s house is a little over 4 kilometre away from her school and she usually walks to and from her school everyday. 

According to the classmate, the accused started following them on a bicycle. Abbas, it is learnt, was teasing the two girls. After some time, the girls parted ways and the victim started walking towards her house in Matigara’s Tumbajote. 

It was then that the accused managed to lure the victim and take her to the lonely spot in Khaprail, which is not very far from Lenin Colony where he resided. 

The accused, say locals, would have attempted to rape her and when she resisted and raised an alarm, he bludgeoned her face and head with a brick and fled, leaving her to bleed to death. 

The murder has sent shockwaves and evoked widespread condemnation because North Bengal does not usually see crimes against women.

Incidents of rape or molestation are extremely rare among the Gorkhas, Rajbongshis and the tea tribes who are the original residents of the region.