'Tripura Violence Fact-Finding Report Sponsored, Self-Serving': State Govt to SC

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Tripura government has termed a fact-finding report by a group of lawyers and human rights organisations on the alleged communal violence that took place in the state last year as "sponsored" and "self-serving."

Questioning the "selective outrage" of the petitioners who had approached the Supreme Court seeking an independent investigation into the incidents, the state government said in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court:

"Just a few months back, series of pre-poll and post-poll communal violence took place in the state of West Bengal. The so-called 'public spirit' of the petitioners did not move a few months back in a larger scale of communal violence, and suddenly their 'public spirit' aroused due to some instances in a small state like Tripura."

Tripura Govt Urges SC To Dismiss Petition

The Tripura government urged the apex court to dismiss the petition filed by advocate Ehtesham Hashmi. Hashmi was one of the members of the team that drew up the fact-finding report titled "Humanity Under Attack in Tripura – #Muslim Lives Matter."

"It is pointed out that such a selective outrage of the petitioner is not presented before this court as a defence but to satisfy this court that under the garb of public interest, the august forum of this court is used for apparently oblique purposes," the affidavit said.

"No individual or group of individuals professionally functioning as public-spirited persons/ groups can selectively invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of the court to achieve some apparent but undisclosed motive," the affidavit stated.

The affidavit further said that the Tripura High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incidents, and the matter was pending before it. The state also pointed out that the Supreme Court had recently rejected a plea seeking an intervention to check the violence during the recent West Bengal municipal elections and also directed the petitioners to approach the Kolkata High Court.

About Tripura Violence

A spell of violence had gripped Tripura in the third week of October, with homes and places of worship belonging to Muslims being targeted.

The pretext for the violence is said to have been the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, with which the state shares a border.

Hindus were attacked, houses were burnt, and temples were vandalised in Bangladesh over the desecration of a Hindu deity and the Quran during Durga puja.

There were protests across the country, including Tripura, where right-wing groups like Vishva Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and Hindu Jagran Manch led the rallies.

There were instances of protesters clashing with police personnel over being denied permission for the rally. This was followed by a spell of violence where Muslim settlements were attacked, at least 15 mosques were allegedly burnt or vandalised, and shops owned by Muslims were set on fire, according to Maktoob Media.

(With inputs from The Indian Express and The Hindu.)