25 shops gutted in Khejuri blaze, TMC targets BJP

Kolkata: At least 25 shops — 13 owned by Hindus and 12 by Muslims — were gutted in a fire at Hijli under Talpati Ghat Coastal police station in East Midnapore late on Sunday night, with police suspecting an electrical short circuit as the cause.Police on Monday said forensic experts had been called to examine the site and that no casualties or injuries have been reported. Authorities also appealed to people not to portray the incident as communal or political.Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Monday shared a clip on X of a raging fire to claim that "nearly 10 shops were set ablaze by BJP miscreants" in the Jonka gram panchyat area of Khejuri, "right in front of police".This came a day after Banerjee claimed that 60 shops were set on fire in the same place.Banerjee on Monday alleged that people's "livelihoods have been reduced to ashes because hatred and intimidation are now being used as political tools". "This was the true face of the politics preached by (Union home minister) Amit Shah and BJP," he said and alleged that "targeted violence was being carried out with complete impunity".Rejecting the allegations, a BJP neta in East Midnapore said that the party always espouses peace and that some people "instigated by Trinamool" were trying to create unrest in the area using BJP's name.