Kolkata, January 25, 2023 (PPI-OT):Indian Secular Front (ISF) legislator Nawsad Siddique and 18 other party workers, including a juvenile, are in police custody in connection with the violence unleashed on ISF members by Trinamool Congress (TMC) activists in the Indian state of West Bengal. All the arrested ISF members will be produced in Kolkata’s Bankshall Court on February 01, Indian media reports said. ISF observes 21st January as its foundation day and a public meeting was called by the party to mark the second year of its establishment.

Before the meeting could even take place in Dharmatala area of Central Kolkata, several ISF members, who were on their way to the venue of the event, were attacked by a group of Trinamool Congress activists. “While workers and sympathisers of ISF were coming for the public meeting in small vans, some anti-social elements blocked the road and created a ruckus,” an ISF sympathiser told media persons over phone Kolkata.

“Party chairman and elected MLA from Bhangar constituency Nawsad Siddique was also attacked on his way to the venue. Some goons started pelting stones incessantly and physically assaulted him. His car was also ransacked. Even though Siddique sustained injuries, he reached the venue to address the meeting,” he added.

After the foundation day event got over, some ISF workers, protesting the violence they were subjected to, clashed with the Kolkata police in Esplanade area. “The police resorted to brutal lathi charge and fired tear gas on ISF members,” he said. Several ISF workers and many policemen were injured in the clashes. Eighteen people including Nawsad Siddique, Biswajit Maity, and Nasiruddin Mir have been arrested and are in Lalbazar central lockup, he said demanding their immediate release.

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