Clashes broke out and vehicles torched in Howrah’s Shibpur area, a suburb  adjoining Kolkata, after a Ram Navami procession passing through GT Road turned violent on Thursday evening.

Tension prevailed in the area even as police carried out flag marches and additional personnel were deployed to maintain law and order.

Howrah Police Commissioner Praveen Tripathi was at the spot, reaching out to both the Hindu and Muslim communities to maintain peace. ThePrint spoke to Tripathi, but he declined to issue any official statement regarding the incident immediately.

“The procession was supposed to pass through at 2pm. Instead they came at 5pm and started raising provocative slogans,” an agitated eyewitness told PTI. He took out his mobile phone and showed videos of men clad in saffron scarf pelting stones at buildings. Agencies  hasn’t verified the videos, which the witness claimed he recorded it around 5.30pm today.

Meanwhile, a procession participant identifying himself at Prashant claimed that at least 5,000 local people were part of the procession when stone-pelting began. “At Shibpur market, stones were hurled at the procession and the situation spiralled (out of control). Vehicles were vandalised, police cars attacked and the situation was out of control,” he told the local agencies.

A police constable at the spot said he was on duty since morning, but was unable to explain how the situation went out of control. 

There was another brief spell of stone-pelting between two communities following which the police resorted to lathicharge and fired tear gas shells to control the crowd.

Earlier in the day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) took processions in different parts of West Bengal. While BJP former national secretary Rahul Sinha was present at one such yatra in Kolkata’s Bhowanipore area, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari participated in the procession held at his constituency Nandigram.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the opposition party for the violence that took place in the state. “They (BJP leaders) have been hiring goons from outside the state to orchestrate communal riots. Nobody has stopped their processions, but they do not have the right to march with swords and bulldozers. How did they get the audacity to do this in Howrah?” Mamata said at a protest rally in Kolkata. 

BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya held Mamata responsible for the violence in Howrah, as the home department was under her control.