Angry Protests against arrest of popular mass leader and former MLA Comrade Mahbub Alam
The surreptitious abduction and arrest of popular peasant leader and former Barsoi MLA Comrade Mahbub Alam by the Katihar Police, in violation of all legal norms, from a meeting in Kushida Hatia, West Bengal on September 1 has enraged the people of Barsoi. Comrade Mahbub has been framed on false murder charges. The police came in plain clothes and initially people thought Comrade Mahbub had been abducted by some gang. The police did not admit the arrest until much later, when they had shifted him to the Katihar District HQ, far from Barsoi. Clearly fearing a popular upsurge, they did not keep him at the Barsoi thana.
The very next day there was a spontaneous and total bandh in Barsoi Block. Even tea vendors shut shop; when the local BJP leader Dulal Goswami exhorted shopkeepers to flout the bandh, he was rebuked even by his own voters who declared that Comrade Mahbub was worth ten of corrupt leaders like him. NCP, RJD and CPI(M) leaders who had conspired to frame Comrade Mahbub did not dare venture out for fear of facing people’s wrath.
On 3 September, there were protests all over Bihar demanding unconditional release of Comrade Mahbub. On 6 September, braving both incessant rains and a menacing police force armed to the teeth, CPI(ML) held a Protest March at the Katihar District HQ, in which thousands of people, including women and children, marched on the streets demanding that the false cases against Comrade Mahbub be withdrawn immediately. On 10 September a massive Protest Meeting was held by the CPI(ML) at Katihar.
