BATTLEGROUND KOLKATA

Police deploy the Rapid Action Force RAF but to no effect. With two arterial roads out of bounds, traffic in North, South and Central Kolkata gridlocked. Commuters and schoolchildren stranded. With a huge spurt in phone calls, major telephone networks clogged.

11 am: Violence spreads to Mullickbazar, Park Street, New Park Street, Hughes Road, Suhrawardi Avenue, Sundarimohan Avenue, Park Circus EM-Bypass connector. Two CPIM party offices are ransacked and papers set on fire. Police have by now lobbed over 35 teargas shells at various points. Many shells malfunction or are fired improperly. Jawed Shamim, DCP South, was injured.

12 noon: Clashes continue; protesters at the Ripon Street crossing try to head for the CPIM state headquarters at Alimuddin Street. Police check them with a lathicharge. Agitators pushed into lanes and bylanes but stonepelting continues. They also chant anti-Government , anti-Taslima slogans.

2.15 pm: The Government sends an SOS to the Army authorities.

3.30 am: Four columns of the 5/4 Gurkha Regiment are on the roads. After a flagmarch, they begin patrolling the area in trucks, escorted by the police. Peace returns to the main roads, the lanes simmer.

6.00 pm: The Shahi Imam of Tipu Sultan Mosque, Syed Mohammed Nur-ur-Rehman Barkati, arrives at the Ripon Street-AJC Bose Road crossing in an SUV. He appeals for peace and says the Chief Minister8217;s secretary has sought his intervention. 8220;This is not violence but the spontaneous protest of Muslims against Taslima. I have asked our men to maintain peace and peace will prevail. The state Government should immediately send Taslima Nasreen away,8221; he said.

10.10 am: Around 200 Muslims gather at Park Circus and Moulali crossings for a scheduled road blockade. Protesters, under the banner of the All India Minority Forum, take out a rally from Park Circus to Moulali and back. Youths begin blocking the arterial AJC Bose Road at Park Circus, Moulali and the Ripon Street-AJC Bose Road crossing. After some time, police escorts ask the protesters to disperse. They refuse.

10.30 am: As police try to clear the blockade again, clashes erupt at various points. Leaders, including Forum general secretary Idris Ali, arrested at the Park Circus crossing. Hundreds of locals emerge from lanes and bylanes and hurl bottles and stones at the cops. The mob damage parked cars, school buses and police vehicles, and torch a car of the Special Branch and a jeep of the Traffic Department.

Police deploy the Rapid Action Force RAF but to no effect. With two arterial roads out of bounds, traffic in North, South and Central Kolkata gridlocked. Commuters and schoolchildren stranded. With a huge spurt in phone calls, major telephone networks clogged.

11 am: Violence spreads to Mullickbazar, Park Street, New Park Street, Hughes Road, Suhrawardi Avenue, Sundarimohan Avenue, Park Circus EM-Bypass connector. Two CPIM party offices are ransacked and papers set on fire. Police have by now lobbed over 35 teargas shells at various points. Many shells malfunction or are fired improperly. Jawed Shamim, DCP South, was injured.

12 noon: Clashes continue; protesters at the Ripon Street crossing try to head for the CPIM state headquarters at Alimuddin Street. Police check them with a lathicharge. Agitators pushed into lanes and bylanes but stonepelting continues. They also chant anti-Government , anti-Taslima slogans.

2.15 pm: The Government sends an SOS to the Army authorities.

3.30 am: Four columns of the 5/4 Gurkha Regiment are on the roads. After a flagmarch, they begin patrolling the area in trucks, escorted by the police. Peace returns to the main roads, the lanes simmer.

6.00 pm: The Shahi Imam of Tipu Sultan Mosque, Syed Mohammed Nur-ur-Rehman Barkati, arrives at the Ripon Street-AJC Bose Road crossing in an SUV. He appeals for peace and says the Chief Minister8217;s secretary has sought his intervention. 8220;This is not violence but the spontaneous protest of Muslims against Taslima. I have asked our men to maintain peace and peace will prevail. The state Government should immediately send Taslima Nasreen away,8221; he said.

What They Said

8220;The violence witnessed in Kolkata on Wednesday, causing injury to several citizens and to policemen on duty and the widespread damage caused to public property is reprehensible. The trauma caused to schoolchildren and teachers is particularly so.8221;

8212;Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi

8220;An outfit called All India Minority Forum has showed sheer irresponsibility by stroking communal tension that has tarnished image of city8230; Even if a small group of people respond to violence a large number of majority does not want that8230;The police have shown utmost restraint in dealing with the situation.8221;

8212;CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

8220;If Taslima8217;s stay in the city disturbs peace she must leave8221;

8212;CPIM state secretary Biman Bose

In the Lok Sabha

8226; During the debate on Nandigram,

L K Advani said: 8220;This House would like to reach the truth8230; Satya is also Shiva and you have to cross Nandi to get to Shiva, and we have Somnath here.8221; To this Speaker Somnath Chatterjee replied: 8220;Don8217;t do anything which will make me perform tandava nritya.8221;

8226; Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi was asked by Mohammad Salim CPI-M to name the Youth Congress chief whose house had been torched. When Dasmunsi mentioned the name, Salim said he was a Maoist. 8220;Then I am also a Maoist,8221; Dasmunsi retorted.