BJP PROTEST TURNS VIOLENT
Party activists, cops hurt, FIR against 32 BJP leaders
BJP workers during a protest in front of Vidhan Bhawan in Lucknow on Wednesday. The party was protesting against alleged deterioration in law and order in Uttar Pradesh. The agitation soon turned violent after party activists and police pelted each other with stones. A few BJP activists sustained injuries in the incident. The agitation resulted in heavy traffic jam on busy Vidhan Sabha Marg which remained completely blocked for hours.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s agitation on the law and order situation in UP turned violent after party activists and police pelted each other with stones here on Wednesday.
The party later claimed that 116 of its leaders and cadres were injured, some of them seriously, in the police action. This included several party MPs, including the state BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, the Phulpur MP who led the agitation.
About 18 cops were also injured as BJP cadres resorted to stone-pelting from the party office. The police responded with rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons along with lathis to push back the agitators. A named FIR against 32 BJP leaders including UP BJP chief and several other MPs along with hundreds of unnamed cadre were later registered against UP BJP chief and other party workers at the Hazratganj police station.
Angered by the police action, the BJP cadres uprooted barricades that were put up to prevent them from moving ahead with the Vidhan Sabha gherao call against ‘failing law and order’ and ‘rising crimes against women’.
As the UP assembly was in session, the cops took no chances, fortifying the area around the BJP office.
“Several of our leaders and workers were injured, some of them critically, in the unprovoked police action. Vijay Kumar Singh, our former district BJP chief from Mau had to be admitted in the intensive care unit,” said UP BJP spokesman Chandramohan who himself received injuries on his shoulders and arms.
While Anju Bala, the party MP from Misrikh became unconscious, Rekha Verma, the MP from Dharauhra, Jagdambika Pal, the MP from Domariyaganj and Harish Dwivedi, the Basti MP, were drenched.
Keshav Prasad Maurya who led the protests was gasping for breath as the police directed the water cannon at him to prevent him from scaling the barricades. Seeing Maurya taking on the police, BJP cadres pushed ahead. Another group removed barricades and started pelting the cops with stones from inside the BJP office. The cops retaliated similarly before resorting to a lathi-charge and firing rubber bullets at the protestors.
When the protests intensified, Lucknow SSP Manzil Saini also rushed to the site. as the cops used five water cannons along with rubbers bullets to push the agitators back.
“The police turned a peaceful agitation violent. When they are treating senior MPs in this manner, one can well imagine how the common man is being treated,” said Jagdambika Pal.
Police officials justified the action, saying BJP men provoked them by pelting them with stones, causing injuries to several cops. “We retaliated but the provocation came from them,” a police officer said.
LUCKNOW: