West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has declared that "there is no communal tension" in her state. (File Photo)
Days after protesters, most of them Muslim, went on a rampage in Malda, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has declared that "there is no communal tension" in her state.
On Sunday, a rally of nearly one lakh Muslim protesters erupted into violence in the town of Kaliachak, with demonstrators setting a police station on fire and damaging several vehicles. The rally was called to protest against remarks made about the Prophet Mohammed by Kamlesh Tiwari, an activist of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, who is now in a Lucknow jail.
The Home Ministry has asked Ms Banerjee's government to submit a report on the violence.
The BJP has also accused Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress of protecting those behind Sunday's violence.
"Communalism is on a rampage in Malda. Police station has been burnt down, innocents are being attacked and there is mayhem... Those who are doing it are doing so under the protection of West Bengal government. It is not taking any substantial action," Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
Assembly polls are due later this year in Bengal, where almost 30 per cent voters are Muslim. Their swing away from the Left played an important role in Ms Banerjee's stunning victory in 2011, which ended nearly 30 years of the Left's rule in Bengal.