Slamming the BJP on communal violence during Ram Navami processions in Shibpur, hardly two km away from state secretariat Nabanna in Howrah, the chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday, “The fact-finding committee has come to disturb peace in the area. What is a fact finding team? They (Centre) are sending human rights commission, child rights commission on all issues.”

Standing beside the top brass of the police force, Mamata said, “Police have taken strategic steps during the Ram Navami processions to bring the situation under control.”

Without taking names of Bajrang Bali and VHP, organisers of Ram Navami procession in Shibpur Mamata said, “They brought so many arms and many people could have died if the police did not prevent both the sides, on the spot. Police took one hour to take strategic steps.”

BJP had brought outsiders from Munger in Bihar to create violence in Shibpur. Many of them, carrying revolvers, were seen dancing madly, she alleged, adding, “Why did they take arms in hands in a religious programme? No one in Bengal wants violence. All stay here together in peace.”

On the other hand, members of the fact-finding team of Delhi-based NGO “Fact Finding Committee on Human Rights Violation” on Sunday evening said that the clashes over Ram Navami processions in Howrah and Hooghly districts call for an investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Members of the team, who met the governor CV Ananda Bose at Raj Bhavan on Monday alleged that trouble erupted in Shibpur and Rishra owing to administrative negligence of the state government.

After being prevented by police on Sunday afternoon from visiting Shibpur and Kazipara in Howrah, where clashes broke out over Ram Navami processions on 30 March and continued till the next day, the members of the fact-finding team came back to Kolkata.

“Despite being restricted in reaching the troubled spots in Howrah district on Sunday and to Rishra in Hooghly district on Saturday, we were able to somehow interact with some of the local people. What we heard from them is quite shameful. There were not adequate police forces when the trouble broke out in these pockets. The administration is playing the ‘me & you’ game. This is a perfect case for a NIA-level probe. At the same time, central armed forces personnel should also be deployed there,” a team member said.