Talking tough on the police, mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Firhad Hakim today raised questions on the ‘intelligence’ wing urging the former to act immediately.
The mayor, reacting to the incident of attempted shooting last evening said, “Enough is enough. Our chief minister Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly urged the police to seize arms and prevent entry of inter-state criminals. Despite that, sitting inactively cannot be allowed. If our councillor would have been killed, it would have been a loss of his family and our party. So, I will urge the police to act now. Despite the CM’s instructions, why are arms getting smuggled? Where is their intelligence? Where is the network? The police will have to find out who was behind the act and what their objective was. As the accused have been arrested, finding out the objective would not be difficult.”
A visibly disappointed mayor, further pointed out, “In every case, it is being seen that miscreants from outside the state are being arrested. In the Barrackpore case also, criminals from outside the state were involved, same is the case in this incident. How are so many criminals from outside coming to the state? Where is the network? The arms are said to have been brought from outside. If so, make arrangements to seize the arms. If there is waterlogging, I have to make arrangements to prevent it. Similarly, if arms are being brought here you (police) have to make arrangements to prevent it. The culture of Bengal is being harmed.”
Ruling out any involvement of intra-party conflict, the mayor said, “This is not intra-party conflict. We are all soldiers of Mamata Banerjee. I am asking the police to make arrests. If it is an internal rivalry even then arrest them. The inter-state criminal entry would have to be stopped. Preventing the miscreants is not a work of the mayor or the councillor but of the police. So the police should prevent it.”