Massive security breach at Mamata Banerjee's public meeting in north Dinajpur in West Bengal
In a shocking breach of security, two women dashed towards a stage on which Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, was just winding up her speech at Hemtabad in North Dinajpur district. One of them wearing a saree was caught by security personnel and while all attention was focused on her, another woman in a
churidar kameez jumped on the stage and fell at Ms Banerjee's feet.
Mamata Banerjee who has Z+ category security jumped back, clearly astonished.
"Can you see the lacunae here?" she told her security personnel as they and other leaders on the dais rushed to stop the girl. Even as Ms Banerjee said, speak to her and find out what the problem is, the girl was taken away. The girl in the saree was also taken away in an an ambulance.
The security breach has shocked the administration. While the police are still tight-lipped, former officers are pointing out that if the girls had planned to attack the Chief Minister, they would have succeeded today.
Eyewitnesses said the girls were sitting right behind the first bamboo ring around the D-Zone, which no one is allowed to enter. They suddenly slipped through the barricade and, in an orchestrated manner; one ran to the right, the other to the left. The police ran after one girl while the other jumped on to the stage.
In fact, some former officers suspect, the saree-clad girl acted as a distraction or a decoy while the other reached the 'target'. Comparisons were drawn to the assassination of former Prime Minster Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
According to the police, the two girls are sisters in their 20s, Hameda and Rabeya Khatoon, who live in Karandighi, 45 km away from Hemtabad. Their father Sheikh Mafuzuddin was murdered in a land dispute in 2015, and the girls wanted to meet the chief minister for justice.
Police said four people are already in jail for the murder. One sister was given a job as a nursing attendant at a local government hospital and a school going brother is being supported to continue his education. But the girls wanted to speak to the Chief Minister. They had apparently gone to her office at Nabanna in Howrah but were unable to reach her.
Over the last three days, when the Chief Minister was touring North Bengal, the two girls had tried to meet her at Malda and at Gangarampur. Today was their last chance and they made a desperate bid for it, the girls claimed.