Fear festers in city fringe areas

kolkata: fear stalks the narrow lanes and bylanes of topsia, beniapukur and tiljala. those belonging to the minority community are apprehensive of persecution and police harassment. "some policemen are involved with the anti-socials in real estate deals. they are now out to implicate innocent people in the american center case," locals complained. raids conducted by the police detectives in the neighbourhood since tuesday night have only confirmed their worst fears.five people from mufidul islam lane at beniapukur were detained and later released after interrogation on wednesday, said sources. among those detained include two of asif reza khan's brothers and naseem, their neighbour. shakeel, brother of nadeem who was held under tada with asif, was detained, too. according to locals, four people, picked up from dilkhusha street, were apparently involved in an earlier case of dacoity as stolen goods were recovered from them on tuesday. senior police officials, however, denied any such arrest. innocent people were being wrongly detained, said a beniapukur resident. at least two of those detained from mufidul islam lane were shareef log, said locals. one of them was a casual employee at a post office. local police stations kept mum though. they simply said, "the raids, if at all, are being conducted by lalbazar." but they are keeping watch on all the madrasahs. "perhaps we are not being informed because we are in close contact with the local people. the news may be leaked," said a police officer from topsia. mahbabur rahman baidya of tiljala, father of the renowned swimmer, masudur rahman baidya, condemned the attack. "those who have done it are not true muslims. according to islam, killing one innocent person is equivalent to killing the whole of mankind. the acts of terrorists are utterly despicable." fearing harassment, he said, "since muslims are suspected to have done it, we are likely to be tortured. yet it is reassuring to hear the chief minister say that hindus and muslims will fight terrorism together." on wednesday morning, police checked around the kohinoor market at tiljala. traders though remained tight-lipped on the matter. owner of a meat shop at topsia second lane said, "in the past few weeks, tiljala police have arrested unwanted elements from the area. now, there is peace here." at several points along the eastern metropolitan bypass including captain's bheri, hughes point, basanti road and mathpukur road, the police are checking two-wheelers and goods vehicles. kolkata police sleuths were stationed along the bypass in the afternoon. highway radio flying squad was posted from 8 am to 8 pm on wednesday. rapid action force was also deployed there.