Cooch Behar violence: Bengal teen reveals what started it all

SITALKUCHI (Cooch Behar): The bloodbath at Sitalkuchi on Saturday may have led to barbs being exchanged between TMC and BJP top brass, but the parents of the 14-year-old boy — whose injury is said to have led to the fracas — are unable to pay for his treatment, including ultrasonography and CT scan that he requires.
Minal Haq is still undergoing treatment at a hospital.His injury and hospitalisation had led to an alleged attack on the Central forces who, in their “self defence”, had gunned down four people, during polling.
Minal, a Class VIII student, said he was playing with friends at 9.30am on Saturday, around 800 metres from the nearest voting centre, when a team of Central forces arrived at the spot in a QRT vehicle.
“I felt it would be wrong to play on the road on election day and we ran from there. They chased and stopped me and began asking me questions in Hindi. I think they could not comprehend what I was saying and hit me with a baton on my waist and spine and I fell on the ground, vomiting,” Minal told TOI from the hospital bed.
His father, Majid Miyan, a daily labourer, said some locals rushed to help Minal. They told the forces that he was a local boy and then they took him to the hospital in their vehicle.
“By the time my son reached the hospital, word had spread that the forces had assaulted him,” said Miyan. The family is now scared of even going back to their village. “I heard people attacked the forces thinking my son had died. So many lives were lost. We feel guilty,” said Minal’s mother.
Amongst the series of police queries and visits from political leaders, the family is grappling to bear the cost of Minal’s treatment. “Doctors have asked us to get tests done from outside the hospital but we don’t have money. Doctors have referred him to the district super speciality hospital but we can’t even pay for the ambulance,” said Miyan.