Security forces resorted to firing tear gas shells after use of water cannons and lathicharge on Tuesday failed to push back protesters who broke a barricade at Satragachi in Howrah in an attempt to march towards West Bengal government’s secretariat for demanding resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over deteriorating women safety and justice for a doctor murdered and raped in a city hospital.
Dozens of protesters, holding the national flag and banners against the government, were detained and a few protesters and policemen were injured in the clashes in Kolkata and Howrah as law-keepers tried to foil the Nabanna Avijan or march to secretariat called by an apolitical students’ group, West Bengal the Chhatra Samaj. The state administration declared the march illegal and unlawful as the organisers had not taken police permission for it.
Water cannons were also used on protesters at College Street in Kolkata. Security forces used lathicharge, water cannons and tear gas when some more barricades fell flat on the Kona Express Highway at Foreshore Road in Howrah, reports said.
A separate report said police also took similar measures at the iconic Howrah Bridge where also the protesters chanted slogans holding aloft the national tricolour.
Many of the police personnel received injuries when the protesters picked up stones from the railway tracks at Satragachi station and hurled them at police forces.
There was barricading at 19 points, including placing of cargo containers, around the secretariat while protesters tried to gather and charge towards the secretariat at two points where force was used by police to control them, reports said.
Reports said even the protesters hurled missiles at police personnel, who were using tear gas shells, and cane-charging them to quell the agitating mob.
A multi-layered security ring, employing nearly 6,000 personnel, was thrown around Nabanna, the building housing the state government’s secretariat, with combat forces, Rapid Action Force (RAF), and riot police, both from Bengal Police and Kolkata Police, putting up barricades on roads leading to the state secretariat and neighbouring areas in Howrah and Kolkata.
While the security agencies beefed up security, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached her office in the secretariat early in the morning, a source said.
Traffic on road to Nabanna from Kolkata through Vidyasagar Setu (bridge) was suspended since Monday night. Traffic was stopped from 8 am onwards on the Grand Trunk Road (GTR), causing inconvenience to office goers between Kolkata and Howrah.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari demanded immediate stopping the alleged police charge on the peaceful protesters and threatened to call a statewide bandh by the BJP to protest against police atrocities on protestors on Tuesday.
Earlier, a police statement said that four students have been arrested for allegedly planning to orchestrate violence during the march to secretariat.
The police statement on the arrest came within hours of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari alleging that the four students were missing from Howrah station where they were last seen distributing food to the volunteers on way to the state secretariat.
“A certain political leader has been trying to create a false narrative about four students who have apparently been missing since last night. The truth is, nobody is missing,” the WB Police posted on its X handle.
“The four were planning to orchestrate large-scale violence during the Nabanna Abhijan today, and were involved in a conspiracy of murder and attempted murder. They have been arrested in the interest of public safety and security, and their families have been informed,” WB Police clarified.
Earlier, Adhikari alleged student activists Subhojit Ghosh, Pulokesh Pandit, Goutam Senapati and Pritam Sarkar were untraceable.
