Opium trade, fake currency, illegal weapons and a mob running wild, no wonder security forces have started referring to Malda as India's own Afghanistan.
Not long ago, paddy used to be main crop for farmers in Malda. Now, poppy has taken it place. Every year, in February and March, farmers lance the poppy capsule and opium oozes from the vast fields of the region. In pics
Opium farming is the engine of Malda's economy. But it is far from being the only criminal activity here. Malda has become the nerve centre for the entry of fake currency into the Indian market, thanks to the district's porous border with Bangladesh. Intelligence agencies are stressed over the ease with which high quality fake Indian currency notes manage to permeate the local economy. Add to deadly cocktail of opium farming and fake currency, a flourishing illegal arms bazaar.
In the recent past, six illegal arms factories have been busted by the local police and BSF in this area. Opium trade, fake currency, illegal weapons and a mob running wild, no wonder security forces have started referring to Malda as India's own Afghanistan.
It wasn't always like this. For decades, Malda was famous across the country as the mango district of West Bengal, known for its succulent variety of Malda mangoes. But it's not for delicious mangoes that Malda has been in the news recently. At the start of this year, on January 3, a rampaging mob of 1.5 lakh people burnt down a police station in Kaliachak. Dozens of shops and vehicles were torched. The mob was incensed by comments made by small time Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow. But distance and time did not stop anger from boiling over in Malda. 30 days and 950 kilometres away from where Kamlesh Tiwari attacked the Prophet Mohammad, anger erupted in Malda.
Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal blamed the Border Security Force for the violence in Malda. It wasn't a communal incident. Rather a clash between local people and the BSF, she said.
The police claims the demonstration spiralled out of control after a BSF vehicle got stuck in a traffic jam caused by the procession. Cops say this led to an altercation between the protesters and BSF personnel.
But the opposition has been quick to pounce on the Trinamool government. Ahead of assembly elections in the state, the BJP is accusing Mamata of playing vote bank politics and choosing to look away as Malda spirals into an abyss of lawlessness, fuelled by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
What really happened on January 3?
Where does the reality of Malda lie? Who was to blame for the violence that erupted on January 3? Is the menace of opium, fake currency and illegal arms really as big as is being made out to be. To find answers to these questions, India Today sent its correspondents to Malda.
The Malda district collectorate was established way back in September 1947. More than a 100 officials from the administration, excise, police and other departments work here. Their job is to govern the 3700 square kilometre area that makes up the Malda District. They are the agents of the Indian state, the instruments of governance. You would assume that these government officials are the most powerful people in Malda and that their writ prevails across the length and breath of the district.
Cops too scared to venture into Malda's badlands
But what if we tell you that there are large parts of Malda where officers of the state government are scared of venturing into. Areas that have been overrun by illegal immigrants, where mobs led by criminals rule and where Indian law means little. Areas that are as lawless as the badlands of Afghanistan.
This is not a figment of someone's imagination, but the reality of Malda. Government officials, cutting across departments, spoke to India Today's special investigation team about just how lawless things really were in Malda.
India Today correspondents went to Malda to investigate the January 3 attack. They met Abhishek Modi, the Additional Superintendent of Police in Malda, one of the senior most law enforcers in the district. Our reporters quizzed Abhishek about the progress in the investigation and whether the police had been able to round up all the criminals involved. We asked Abhishek if we could go and see the areas the criminals had come from.
"Don't even think about it," was the Additional Superintendent's stark warning.
A charred vehicle in the premises of police station
The Additional Superintendent of Police warned our correspondents about not going into the interior areas. He revealed that these places were dens of bombs, arms and fake currency. We then asked Abhishek how did cops manage to patrol the areas that had been taken over by illegal migrants. His answer startled us.
The top cop revealed to reporters that it wasn't safe for policemen to venture into these pockets alone. The cops were afraid that mobs would surround and attack them.
India Today correspondents then visited the office of the District Intelligence Bureau or the DIB where they met Mihir Lal Laskar. Speaking to India Today's team, Mihir insisted that there was no intelligence failure and that two days before the attack, the state administration had been warned that a sinister plan was afoot at Kaliachak.
The cops say, they had no warning. The intelligence bureau says a warning was given well in time. Unwilling to take blame and facing political heat, the Mamata Government pinned the blame on the Border Security Force, which reports to the Home Ministry at the centre.
8 of the 23 policemen who were present at the Kaliachak Police Station on January 3 have been transferred to neighbouring police stations. They have been ordered to zip up and not speak to journalists.
India Today managed to track down, Assistant Sub Inspector Ram Chand Saha who was on duty when the mob attacked. Saha said that the mob fired at the cops and that they even hurled bombs. The ASI also claimed that cops were under strict instructions not to use force against the mob.
From the district headquarters, India Today's team travelled to the now infamous Kaliachak police station, which had just been given a fresh coat of paint. It was here that a wild mob of roughly 1.5 lakh people had gone on a rampage on January 3. At the Kaliachak police station we met Sub Inspector Sheetal Jha. We asked Sheetal about the kind of weapons that the criminals living in the badlands of Kaliachak had access to.
Sheetal told us that Malda is used as a transit zone by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They live here temporarily before moving on to greener pastures like Mumbai and Chennai. In Malda, immigrants are also able to arrange fake Indian identification for themselves.
Stories of armed mobs clashing with law enforcement agencies would seem like scenes straight out off a Hollywood flick but this is the stark reality that cops like Sheetal and Abhishek need to deal with in Malda.
Fake currency, opium and illegal arms, Malda is a den for them all.
Malda is far away from the radar of those who live in the country’s glitzy metros, but parts of the district seem to be falling of the Indian map as well.
As West Bengal slips into election season, Malda has become a bone of contention between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress. But somewhere in this political tu-to-main-main critical questions of national security are being ignored.
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