Kolkata, Oct 8 (IANS): West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Dilip Ghosh on Thursday said the police action against protesters proved that the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government is afraid of the saffron surge in the state.

"The police resorted to lathicharge on BJP workers. The protest march was peaceful. The firearm that the police has seized from the rally belongs to a BJP leader's personal security person. And he has got a licence. We have valid papers and will furnish them before the right authorities," Ghosh told reporters here.

The BJP state president said that the Trinamool Congress government and its police were trying to malign the image of the BJP saying we hurled crude bombs in the rally.

"Their allegations are baseless. In fact crude bombs were hurled at us by Trinamool-backed goons. It is nothing but a political conspiracy against us," Ghosh said, adding that he led one of the four protest marches from the BJP state headquarters on Central Avenue.

State Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said that the police only tried to stop the agitators from heading towards Nabanno and had to take necessary action to stop the crowd.

West Bengal Municipal Affairs Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said: "BJP is not a political party. They are a terrorist force and they try to intimidate people. Naturally, the police had to take necessary action to control such forces. A political party can never hurl bombs or carry fire arms during a peaceful march."