The Trinamul Congress on Sunday accused Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh of failing to sympathise with the five Bengali families whose members were gunned down in Tinsukia.

Ghosh was at Jaleswari near here to attend a public meeting organised by the BJP’s Dabgram-Fulbari unit.

“Neither during his 30-minute speech nor during his interaction with media personnel did Ghosh utter a single word of sympathy at Jaleswari,” said Argha Roy Pradhan, Trinamul MLA of Mekhiliganj.

During his speech, Ghosh talked about the Assam incident, but his focus was more on lambasting Trinamul for sending a delegation to meet the victims’ families.

“Trinamul is simply sending its delegation to Assam with some political interests. Trinamul wanted some political unrest and communal clash to take place in Assam so that they can do some politics here by exploiting that situation,” said Ghosh.

The Bengal BJP president had written to Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday, requesting both the Centre and the Assam government to ensure safety of “Bengali Hindus”.

“People are dying, but he can’t sympathise with them… This reveals the BJP’s true character,” said Trinamul secretary general Partha Chatterjee.

Sources in the BJP headquarters in Calcutta admitted that the killings had castled the state unit and they were at wit’s end to figure out the right response to the situation.

Trinamul and all major political parties, including Congress and Left Front, have organised protest rallies across the state. They have held the BJP responsible for the killing stating that the incident was an adverse outcome of the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens.

Ghosh, however, ridiculed the allegation during his speech on Sunday.

“When it is not confirmed who was behind the killing, how come they are making such comments?” asked Ghosh.

The BJP leader said the massacre was not a fallout of the NRC episode. “I just can’t understand… the NRC (publication of final draft) took place a couple of months back but neither a single incident occurred till date nor did a single person flee from the state (Assam) as they want to live in peace.”

Passing the buck on to Trinamul, Ghosh, added: “Now if somebody will try to instigate from here, the Bengali speaking population would be in trouble in Assam,” he said, blaming Trinamul for the conflict in the neighbouring state.