A day after violence broke out in the Indian state of Tripura, many outraged and shocked social media users have hit out at the ruling party -- the BJP -- and called for an inquiry by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
According to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), BJP workers ransacked their party offices on Wednesday. The BJP, on the other hand, has claimed that the attack came from the Left. Some newspaper offices were also set ablaze.
According to local media reports, six vehicles and more than a dozen two-wheelers were burnt down in Agartala and other places of the state.
Tripura Left Front convener Bijan Dhar told the media that the CPI-M's district office in Bishalgarh was first damaged by a bulldozer and then set on fire, reducing most of the assets and papers to ashes.
The Left front is a political alliance in which the CPI(M) is the dominant party, the other three members being the Communist Party of India, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc
"Ministers, the Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly and senior BJP leaders have been urging their party workers and members to continue attacks on the opposition party members and their offices," Dhar said.
He also said that a large number of party workers, including leaders Nani Paul and Partha Pratim Majumder, were seriously injured in the series of attacks on Wednesday.
Dhar, a CPI-M central committee member, said that the "BJP goons" have damaged the statue and photographs of former State Chief Dasaratha Deb and other late party leaders in the party offices.
The Left leader said that the "BJP-backed goons and their workers" also attacked the office of the party's mouthpiece "Daily Desher Katha".
Earlier, there was a rally by BJP workers in Agartala.
According to the police, there was also a rally by Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of the CPI(M), demanding the BJP government provide the promised jobs.
The DYFI alleged that their rally was stopped by the BJP and there were heated discussions that led to clashes. It said their members suffered injuries and were taken to the GB Hospital. But the fight went on and workers from both sides were left wounded.
Several media organisations and senior journalists and editors, including Agartala Press Club Secretary Pranab Sarkar, condemned the attack and demanded that those involved be arrested immediately.