KOLKATA: Kolkata was ambushed by a Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind rally on Saturday afternoon, putting lakhs of commuters through six hours of agony and forcing President Pranab Mukherjee ’s route to be changed. At least 11 policemen — including three IPS officers — were injured in brickbatting and 13 police vehicles damaged. Journalists were attacked for “intruding on the space meant for rallyists” — which was Red Road, the city’s VIP thoroughfare.

Taken by surprise, police simply stood by and let some 2 lakh Jamiat supporters run amok in the heart of Kolkata. Even bylanes in south and central Kolkata were clogged. For hours, police had no control over a 3sqkm area besieged by the rallyists. When the cops did try to restore order, they came under attack. News crews were roughed up, too, and a van of 24Ghanta damaged.

The administration has taken a battering when it was yet to recover from the bruising battle over BJP’s Amit Shah rally on Sunday. Jamiat leaders wanted to hold the meeting on the Brigade grounds (Maidan) but when Army denied permission, they brazenly took over the city. And no, they did not have permission from the fire department either although the government made such a huge issue of it for the BJP rally.

The rallyists parked buses and trucks on the Maidan, in violation of the high court-imposed ban, and even parked outside Fort William, forcing Army to deploy Military Police. The “historic” gathering at the Sahid Minar grounds spilled over to the adjoining roads — Bentinck Street, JL Nehru Road, Red Road and Mayo Road — choking the business district and having a ripple effect from north to south. The 3,000-odd cops deployed turned out to be woefully inadequate for a gathering of such strength and such aggressiveness. DC-central D P Singh suffered a head injury that needed three stitches. Joint CP-traffic Supratim Sarkar and DC-south Murli Dhar Sharma, too, were injured as the mob pelted stones and turned Jamiat flagstaffs into lathis.

Jamiat leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury blamed police for the violence. “There was tension when police drove a car through the rally. The (police) action and combative reaction of a section of rallyists are both unwarranted. We have been holding rallies for years. This never happened. I suspect some outsiders sneaked into our rally to discredit us. They need to be punished,” he said.

The rallyists started streaming into the city from across Bengal since dawn, but police intelligence failed to gauge the crowd count. “We had informed police that we expected about 1-1.5 lakh people. That’s why we wanted to hold the rally at Brigade grounds. The gathering on Saturday turned out to be even bigger,” said Chowdhury. Many rallyists were already angry at being denied their chosen venue. Pushing and jostling led to frayed tempers. Reports of a rallyist being hit by a vehicle stoked anger. “The vehicle sped away and police did not try to stop it,” said some Jamiat supporters from Basirhat. This triggered a blockade of Red Road and Mayo Road. “When police tried to remove the blockade, trouble erupted,” said joint CP-HQ Rajeev Mishra.

The mob first attacked a vehicle carrying the joint CP-intelligence at Red Road crossing. For a while it was a free-for-all as the mob went on the rampage. People caught in the traffic snarl blamed police’s unpreparedness. “By the time senior officers stepped in to control the situation, it had already gone out of hand,” said an officer who manned the control room for some time. Several people missed trains and flights. Merchant chambers cancelled meetings and ambulances were stuck in bumper-to-bumper jams.

By 12.30pm, vehicles bound for Howrah and Sealdah and south-bound traffic was stuck. “It was a nightmare for me and my daughter. We had to catch the Rajdhani at Sealdah (departure 4.50pm) and reached Race Course by 2.15pm, much ahead of time. But we got stuck in the jam. Around 3pm, I got off the taxi and had to carry our two-year-old granddaughter as my daughter and husband pulled the luggage. It is 4.10pm now and we have merely crossed KC Das crossing. I am not sure if we can make it,” said Oindrella Sinha of New Alipore.

Till late evening, cops were huddled in a meeting at Lalbazar HQ trying to ascertain where they went wrong despite top IPS officers leading the forces. The embarrassed cops have decided to strike back and have filed two FIRs with 11 serious charges. “We are analyzing CCTV footage and our own videography and will start picking up those who instigated the violence,” said an officer.

