A family of three in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, including an eight-year-old child, were murdered by “unidentified miscreants”, PTI quoted the police as saying on Wednesday. The incident in the district’s Jiagang area may have occurred on Monday night, the police added, citing prima facie evidence.

The victims were identified as 35-year-old schoolteacher Bandhu Prakash Pal, his wife Beauty Pal, 30, and their son Angan Pal. The Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that Bandhu Pal was a worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the saffron party. RSS state Secretary Jishnu Basu also claimed that the schoolteacher was a member of his organisation, and used to attend a weekly meeting, according to ANI.

The Pals’ neighbours told the police after they visited the family on Tuesday on the occasion of Vijayadashami but found it bolted from inside. “The locals then informed the police and the bodies, lying in a pool of blood, were recovered,” an unidentified senior police official told PTI. “An investigation has been initiated in the case.”

The family had reportedly moved to the neighbourhood about six years ago for their son’s education, Bandhu Pal’s brother Sujoy Ghosh said.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted a video of the killings on Thursday morning. “This has shaken my conscience,” he posted. “[An] RSS worker Shri Bandhu Prakash Pal, his eight months pregnant wife and his kid were brutally slaughtered in West Bengal’s Murshidabad. Not a word by the liberals. Not a letter by 59 liberals to [Chief Minister] Mamata [Banerjee]. Nauseating selectivism!”

National Commission for Women Chairperson Rekha Sharma took note of the murders. “Horrible horrible crime and worst is nothing is been done by authorities to stop such incidents,” she tweeted. “I am writing to [the] chief minister and director general of police though it’s like water on duck’s back whereas West Bengal is concerned.”

Violence since Lok Sabha elections

Scores of BJP and Trinamool Congress members have been murdered in recent months. The political violence peaked after the Lok Sabha election results were declared in May. The two parties have repeatedly blamed each other for the violence.

On May 30, a BJP worker was stabbed to death in Ketugram in East Burdwan district. It came four days after a saffron party worker was shot dead in the Bhatpara area in North 24 Parganas district. A BJP supporter was among the people arrested for the murder of a Trinamool Congress leader in Kolkata in June. The same month violence broke out in Sandeshkhali in the North 24 Parganas district after an altercation between BJP and Trinamool workers. Three people were killed in the clashes, forcing the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to ask for a report from the state government.

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