West Bengal Police Arrest Malda Gherao Mastermind

West Bengal police arrested advocate Mofakkarul Islam, a former candidate for the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, on Friday at Bagdogra airport in Siliguri as he attempted to board a flight to Bengaluru. Authorities identified him as the mastermind behind the gherao of seven judicial officers in Malda district's Kaliachak area on Wednesday, where protesters confined the officers inside a block development office for nearly eight hours amid unrest over alleged deletions from electoral rolls.

The incident unfolded during the Special Intensive Revision exercise, a process directed by the Supreme Court to verify documents for about 6 million voters flagged by the Election Commission across the state. In Kaliachak II block under the Mothabari assembly constituency, demonstrators blocked National Highway 12 and surrounded the office around 4 p.m., preventing the officers, including three women, from leaving. The group, protesting what they described as wrongful removals from voter lists, denied the officials food and water during the standoff. Police dispersed the crowd past midnight, rescuing the officers, though their convoy faced stone-pelting that damaged at least one...