Deganga is a Community Development Block (CDB) in North 24 Parganas district, India with a Muslim-majority population that is part of the Basirhat parliamentary constituency.
While the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) historically represented the constituency, the seat was won by Haji Nurul Islam of the Trinamul Congress in the Indian general elections of 2009.
[1][5] The CDB had remained calm during what journalist Partha Dasgupta described as "the two most trying times in recent history", being the Babri Masjid incident of 1992 and the Gujarat riots of 2002[6] in this situation CPI(M) did the best work to control the violence.
[8] There were claims that the action was an attempt to stop the Durga Puja from taking place[1][8] and that the Hindu community had been constructing a "makeshift structure" (a pandal adjacent to their temple) by the boundary of the cemetery.
[9] Underlying the immediate cause was resentment relating to use of a loudspeaker by a local mosque: the Kolkata High Court was at that time in the process of adjudicating on the issue and had prevented its use while doing so, and there was a belief that Haji Nurul Islam had gained votes in the 2009 elections by promising to support those who favoured its use.
[8] The Muslim community retaliated first by establishing a road-block and then, in the evening, by marching as a mob to protest at the police station and to possibly to free those who were in custody.
The police, who were outnumbered by the mob, had been augmented by the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and then by paramilitary reinforcements from Kolkata as the number of reported injured people rose to at least 24.
[10] The violence continued on Wednesday morning, 8 September, with one incident involving a mob from Ramnathpur and Khejurdanga attacking houses in the Salimpukur and Hospital area, off the Taki Road that runs through the district.
Nonetheless, state officials claimed that the situation was gradually coming under control and they announced a compensation scheme for those who had lost property.
As with other politicians, Haji Nurul Islam could offer no explanation for the death of the Hindu youth, who had ventured into the area from his home village of Falti and whose family were being generally shunned in the aftermath of the events.