Agartala, Jul 21 (IANS): Over 80 Trinamool Congress activists, including a few leaders and the party's Tripura unit president Ashish Lal Singha, were arrested on Wednesday in different parts of Tripura after they gathered to listen to party supremo Mamata Banerjee's virtual speech on the occasion of Martyrs' Day.

Police said about 80 Trinamool activists and leaders were arrested from Unokoti, North Tripura and West Tripura districts for gathering in violation of the Covid-19 restrictions.

Maximum number of Trinamool workers gathered at Gournagar in northern Tripura's Unokoti district to pay homage to the 13 martyrs who were killed in police firing at a Youth Congress rally led by then Congress leader Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata in 1993.

Though the party observes July 21 as Martyrs' Day every year to remember the 13 martyrs in West Bengal, for the first time they observed the day in different states of the country including BJP-ruled Tripura.

However, Singha claimed that police arrested them despite them maintaining Covid restrictions and protocols. In Kolkata, Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee claimed that her party workers were not allowed by the BJP government in Tripura to observe Martyrs' Day.