East Bengal and Mohun Bagan Super Giant supporters gathered outside the Salt Lake Stadium to jointly protest the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)
Arch-rivals on the field became united off it on Sunday as East Bengal and Mohun Bagan Super Giant supporters gathered outside the Salt Lake Stadium to jointly protest the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Sunday was supposed to be a derby match between the two teams in the Durand Cup but it was cancelled on Saturday due to the prevailing unrest in the city and concerns over the law and order situation.
“The match between Mohun Bagan Super Giant and Emami East Bengal FC has been cancelled. All online and offline tickets will be refunded,” the organizers had posted on X.
In what was a rare sight, supporters of the two clubs held each other’s flags and raised slogans demanding justice for the victim’s family, with a huge contingent of the police keeping a vigil on the situation. Supporters of the Mohammedan SC, another major football club, also joined the protests a while later.
As the protests spilled onto the busy EM Bypass and blocked the traffic, police chased the agitators in a high-voltage drama and detained some of them. Even though the police were somewhat successful in breaking the gathering initially, the protesters regrouped in small numbers a while later and continued raising slogans.
Earlier, the police had imposed prohibitory orders under section 163 of the BNSS in the area from 4 pm till 12 am to prevent any disruption of peace.
For defying the prohibitory orders, some of those who gathered here were detained, they said.
As the police tried to whisk away those detained, the supporters of the two clubs tried to block the way of the vans.
A senior police officer said there were intelligence inputs that attempts would be made to trigger violence during the match, because of which it was cancelled.
“We had specific information that some groups and organisations would attempt to create disturbance in the stadium,” he said, adding that 63,000 spectators were expected for the match.
“Keeping in view the safety and security of the football lovers, we took up the matter with the Derby committee and decided to cancel today’s match,” he said.
(With agency inputs)
