Kolkata: It seems that Dalit lives don’t matter in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal.

Days after two Dalit students - Rajesh Sarkar and Tapan Burban were killed in cold blood in Islampur by a trigger-happy Bengal police, BJP had called a 12-hour statewide bandh on Wednesday.

Though police have denied Rajesh and Tapan were students, it doesn’t take away the fact that the police used excessive brute force on innocent students who were simply demanding new teachers.

The bandh has brought entire Islampur to a standstill with at least four buses burnt down. Trains were also stopped at many places including at Canning.

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In the state capital Kolkata, multiple protest marches were held with senior BJP leader and MP Roopa Ganguly leading a march in city’s Hazra.

BJP supporters were targetted by the cops at many places with lathi-charge, firing of tear gas shells and arrests.

All this is happening even as chief minister Mamata has opposed the bandh from Europe, where she is on a tour at the moment and her government has reportedly issued a circular refusing casual leaves for government employees on bandh day.