Thousands of people gathered in front of the office of the superintendent of police (Howrah rural) at Panchla on Sunday demanding justice in the alleged murder of student activist Anis Khan.

The law enforcers heaved a sigh of relief at the end of the day as the massive rally didn’t go out of hand, as it did during an SFI-DYFI rally on Saturday.

Sunday’s rally was called by Kasem Siddiqui, a cleric of the Furfura Sharif. However, Siddiqui reached the SP office alone, even as the crowd was starting to gather at Ranihati.

The cleric was inside for a little over 30 minutes and by that time the mob had reached the SP office. Siddiqui later said he had met an additional SP. Superintendent of police (Howrah Rural) Saumya Ray was not present in office at that time.

Siddiqui claimed that he could identify a few goons in the mob who, he thought, intended to hurl stones at the SP office and defame a peaceful conglomeration of people.

“These were the people who had created a ruckus on Saturday (during the SFI-DYFI rally). I showed them to the additional SP,” Siddiqui said. He also added that he had demanded that the actual perpetrators behind Anis’s death must be arrested.“The police will go to exhume Anis’s body on Monday at 10am,” Siddiqui said.

After Saturday’s brawl, the police were extra precautions on Sunday and additional preparations to combat the protest. However, nothing uncalled for happened barring the police running after a few agitators to disburse them.

Fifteen of the 17 SFI-DYFI activists — including DYFI state secretary Minakshi Mukherjee— arrested from Panchla on Saturday were sent to a day’s judicial custody on Sunday. Two others were sent to a day’s police custody.

“The police claimed that arms could be recovered from the two boys and had demanded two day’s police custody. The honourable court allowed a single day’s custody,” said Sabyasachi Chatterjee, the counsel for the arrested people.

On the other hand, the Trinamul students’ wing has decided to organise a rally related to the death of Anis, in Calcutta on Monday to thank the government for setting up a special investigation team to probe Anis’s death.

The Trinamul Chhatra Parishad state president Trinankur Bhattacharjee said the rally would march from the Ramlila grounds to the Gandhi statue.

“We would thank chief minister Mamata Banerjee for setting up the SIT to probe Anis's death. We will also condemn the shameful attempt made by some parties to politicise a death,” Bhattacharjee said.

Reacting to the TMCP’s proposed rally, SFI national general secretary Mayukh Biswas said: “They have no moral right to call for such rallies. Anis was killed by an unholy conspiracy of the police and the Trinamul.”