- Police said the deceased also included a child.
- Deployed on the orders of the High Court.
- 118 people were arrested and 15 police officers were injured.
Kolkata: India resorts to deploying troops to quell deadly protests over legislation in West Bengal to change the way Muslim-owned property is managed.
Police fired tear gas to thousands of protesters gathered in the state’s Mershidabad area on Friday. Police told AFP Saturday.
“So far, 118 people have been arrested for violence,” said Jawed Shamim, a senior police officer in the state, adding that at least 15 police officers were injured.
The state’s high court ordered the deployment of federal forces.
The WAQF amendment, which sparked protests, was passed earlier this month after fierce debate.
There are about twenty WAQF boards across India, with about 900,000 acres of land, a multi-billion-dollar real estate empire that makes them one of the largest landholders next to the railway and the Wehrmacht.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju introduced the bill on Wednesday, saying he would examine corruption and mismanagement.
Home Minister and close aide Amit Shah said the changes will help “catch the person who leases property” to get personal gain. “This money can be used to help minority groups grow,” he said.
Shah said non-Muslims who will be included on the board as part of the new bill will only participate in “administrative” matters. However, the opposition accused the government of sacrificing “polarized politics” at the expense of 200 million Muslim minorities.
According to the ruling Indian nationalist government, it will increase transparency around land management by holding a responsible WAQF board, which controls property gifted by the Muslim Charitable Endowment Foundation.
But the opposition called the bill a “attack” against the polarization of Indian Muslim minorities. They accuse Prime Minister Narendra Mod’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) of trying to win favor through its right-wing Hindu base.
After the bill was passed, Modi called it a “watershed”.
Rahul Gandhi, head of the opposition Congress party, also said the bill “targets Muslims today but sets a precedent for the goals of other communities in the future”.
Modi’s decade as prime minister has seen him foster an image to become an aggressive champion of most Hindu beliefs in the country.
His government revoked the constitutional autonomy of the majority of Indian Muslims in India, illegally occupied Jamu and Kashmir, and supported the construction of a temple, a mosque that stood for centuries before the demolition of Hindu extremists in 1992.
