• Source:JND
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After anti-Waqt law protests claimed three lives in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, fresh unrest has erupted in the state’s Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district. Workers of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) allegedly clashed with city police and set a van ablaze after their vehicles, en route to a demonstration site against the Waqf Amendment Bill in Kolkata, were stopped by the police. 

The ISF supporters allegedly blocked the Basanti Highway in protests, following which the traffic movement there got heavily disrupted. The police had to resort to cane charge to disperse the protesters. 

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The ISF legislator from Bhangar, Nausad Siddique, who is his party's lone representative in the state Assembly, said the police are mainly responsible for spreading tension over the Waqf issue.

"This is just to divert attention from the public unrest over the recent cancellation of 25,753 school jobs following an order of the Supreme Court. We were stopped unnecessarily, and the police deliberately did it to create tension. We will go the legal way in the matter," Siddique said. 

Meanwhile, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking a court-monitored investigation by a central agency into the violent clashes in Murshidabad. 

“Waqf is an excuse, Hindus are the target," Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha said in the apex court.

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He also requested an order to ensure the protection of life and liberty of those currently being affected and prevent further escalation in the ongoing violence.