The TMC supremo also reiterated that she would never allow NRC or detention camps to come up in Bengal "even if my throat is slit". She also alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and his party would have sabotaged and overthrown her government ahead of the assembly elections had she not allowed the SIR to be conducted.

After opposing the Waqf Properties Amendment Act, introduced by the Narendra Modi government earlier this year, the Bengal government last week notified all Waqf properties in Bengal – around 82,000 across the state – to be registered in the central portal UMEED by 5 December. Today, Mamata assured Waqf properties would remain untouched. “Waqf properties will not be encroached upon; the safety of minorities is my responsibility,” the chief minister said.

“For the past few days, some miscreants have been spreading rumours that the state government has recorded religious sites as mosques or graveyards under Collector Khatian number 1. This is a lie,” she said.

Anti-Waqf Amendment Act protests had escalated into large-scale violence in Murshidabad’s Jangipur and Umarpur, claiming three lives, and thousands of villagers were left homeless a few months ago. Homes, shops and police vehicles were torched in villages. The chief minister said she would not allow bloodshed in Murshidabad in the coming days.