Jammu, Oct 7: Around a dozen Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) activists, including two women, sustained injuries when police resort to cane charging to foil their bid to take out a protest rally at Purani Mandi here on Wednesday.
 The BJP workers were protesting against the ‘manhandling’ of the party legislators inside  the assembly in Srinagar and statement of the chief minister Omar Abdullah.
 Hundreds of BJP activities, under the leadership of its president Rajesh Gupta took out a   protest rally from their head office at Kachi Chawni this morning to lodge their protest.
 Amid shouting of slogans against the chief minister and Congress, the protesters were intercepted by the strong contingent of police personnel led by SHO police station Pacca Danga Inspector Vishal Sharma and SDPO City SS Sambyal outside Women College Parade.
 Protestors refused to disperse leading to a minor scuffle between the two sides, eyewitnesses said adding that the BJP activists managed to reach Purani Mandi Bazar and burnt effigy of the chief ministers.
 Police swung into action and resorted to baton-charge to quall the demonstration during which 12 protesters, including two women wing leaders, sustained injuries.
 The injured workers were identified as Sat Sharma, Surinder Sharma, Shilpi Verma, Shiv Kumar Gupta, Jaideep Sharma, Praduman Singh, Dalip Gupta, Raj Rani Jamwal, Pushpa Wazir, Kuldeep Kandhari, Vidya Devi, Aseem Gupta, Manumanav Mahajan, Varun Malhotra and Rakesh Kumar.
 In a statement issued later in the evening, the state general secretary Sat Sharma termed the manhandling of the BJP legislators in assembly (Srinagar) as unfortunate.
 Referring to the statement of the chief minister, Sharma said that the utterances of Omar Abdullah reflect loss of confidence in himself and his ability to govern the state.
 Warning the government, he said that BJP will not be cowed down by the police action and would oppose tooth and nail any direct or indirect dilution of bonds between the state and rest of the country.
 Meanwhile, another protest rally was taken out at Muthi against the chief minister’s statement. Before the protesters could set on fire the effigy of chief minister Omar Abdullah, eyewitnesses said, police personnel snatched the effigy from them.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 7 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Oct 2010 00:00:00 IST