Chaos hit Nowshera town on Monday evening when during a protest march, under the ongoing agitation for district status, some people entered into a scuffle with Nowshera Joint Action Committee (JAC), which is heading the agitation.
alleged ruling Bhartiya Janta Party for making attempts to crush this agitation.
As per reports, the incident took place when Chotu Ram Chowdhary, who resigned from BJP two days ago, was addressing the protesters and accused BJP of step motherly treatment with the area. Some BJP workers objected his remarks against the party and a heated exchange of words took place.
“Heated exchange of words was followed by a scuffle between both sides and Chowdhary was allegedly thrashed, spreading chaos,” reports revealed.
A total of five person sustained injuries in the incident and all of them were taken to a local hospital. Besides Choudhary, the others who sustained injuries have been identified as Narinder Kumar @Mangu, resident of Nowshera, Ex-Sarpanch Kalsiyan Bahadur Singh, Ex-Sarpanch Langer Sukhdev Singh and Retired Master Om Parkash from Nonial. They all have been referred to GMC Jammu.
Reports mentioned that among injured, few are BJP and PDP workers. “Scuffle took place between active BJP workers and the one who resigned and PDP workers got injured when they intervened in the scuffle to pacify it,” said sources.
The local police registered two separate FIRs in lieu of the incident. “An FIR has been registered on the complaint of Chotu Ram Chowdhary, while another FIR has been lodged on the complaint of Bahadur Singh,” SSP Rajouri Yougal Manhas said.
Meanwhile, BJP accused PDP workers of assaulting its workers. “PDP Workers assaulted BJP leaders in Nowshera, injuring them critically,” a BJP leader alleged. They also named some PDP workers for the alleged assault.
On the other hand, Nowshera JAC alleged that BJP workers are trying to terrorize the agitated people of Nowshera, in order to crush the agitation.
In a press note issued here, the Nowshera people said, “BJP workers assaulted senior citizens, who were sitting on the on-going dharna in the town, and Chotu Ram Choudhary, former district Vice-President of BJP, Om Parkash Choudhary and Sukhdev Singh Choudhary received severe injuries in the attack.”
They claimed that Choudhary had resigned from BJP due to anti-people policies of the party leadership and to teach him a lesson, BJP men attacked those who were sitting on the dharna in the town. “We the public of Noweshera demand that the government should set up an enquiry and constitute a board of doctors to examine the two BJP leaders, who have been termed as injured,” the press note said.