Kolkata: India’s eastern city Kolkata on Tuesday witnessed daylong pitched battles between protesters and police as a students’ march to West Bengal state secretariat Nabanna demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor and its alleged cover-up in state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital turned violent.
The protest march to Nabanna against the RG Kar rape-murder turned Kolkata into a battleground as police and mobs of students and demonstrators faced off at multiple locations en route the administrative building in the twin city of Howrah that houses the office of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Police said as many as 220 people were arrested in the protest march to Nabanna which turned violent forcing the cops to baton-charge and fire water cannons and teargas shells in Kolkata and Howrah.
The protest march turned violent in Satragachi in Howrah, in MG Road, Howrah Bridge approach and Bowbazar crossing in Kolkata as the protesters fought with the police who appealed for peaceful march while barricading all roads to Nabanna since last night.
West Bengal Police’s ADG and IGP (South Bengal) Supratim Surkar said 94 agitators, who were staging protests at several locations in Howrah under state police’s jurisdiction without approval from the authorities, had been arrested, while 11 policemen were injured during the skirmish with protesters.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Police informed that 126 people, including 103 men and 23 women, were held during protests under their jurisdiction.
At least 15 policemen were reportedly injured in the clashes in Kolkata. The exact number of protesters injured in the agitation is unaccounted.
Tensions erupted at multiple locations in Kolkata and Howrah as protesters demanding resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and justice for the Kolkata doctor, who was brutally raped and murdered inside RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, took to the streets to march towards Nabanna.
Police said the protesters hurled bricks, stones and bottles aiming at cops, forcing them to baton-charge, lob tear gas shells and use water cannons to disperse them.
Organisers of the protest, which was held by one unregistered organisation — Paschimbanga Chhatra Samaj- alleged that police had “attacked” their “peaceful” rallies without any provocation and several of their protesters were injured.
Police, however, had turned Nabanna into a fortress overnight and arranged an “unprecedented” security for the building sealing all the roads, even lanes, to the state secretariat with barricades and big containers at some locations.
Meanwhile, to protest police’s “unprovoked” actions on the students’ protest rally, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a 12-hour general shut down (bandh) on Friday (August 28).
