Kolkata, 5 May

BJP supporters on Monday staged protests across the city and districts demanding the identification, arrest and deportation of Pakistani citizens living in India, following the recent terror attack in Pahalgam.

At Alipore, outside the South 24 Parganas district magistrate's office, around 200 BJP members led by senior leader Debasree Choudhury staged a protest and accused the state government of not acting quickly on Union Home Minister Amit Shah's directive to deport Pakistani nationals from all the states and take legal action.

"We have reasons to believe that many Pakistani nationals are hiding in South 24 Parganas and other parts of West Bengal. After the Pahalgam attack, Shah spoke to several state governments about tracking them. Other states responded, but Bengal hasn't taken much action," alleged Choudhury, a former Union minister.

The protest led to scuffles with police, who had barricaded Judges Court Road, causing traffic disruption for about an hour.

The district magistrate's office shares its compound with the West Bengal police headquarters, Bhavani Bhavan, and the district sessions court.

In central Kolkata, BJP leader Indranil Khan led the protest before the office of the deputy commissioner, Central, to press for the same demand.

Similar protests were held in Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, Paschim Bardhaman, Dakshin Dinajpur, Coochbehar and Siliguri in front of the offices of the DM and SP, where hundreds of party supporters took part.

The Pahalgam attack on April 22 killed 26 people, including 25 tourists.

The central government blamed Pakistan for supporting terrorists to disturb peace in Kashmir, which had recently seen a surge in tourism.