Lathicharge on Congress workers during procession in Patna

Patna, Jul 24 (PTI) Police on Wednesday resorted to lathicharge and used water cannon to disperse Congress workers in Patna, led by the party's youth wing chief marching in a procession towards the Bihar Vidhan Sabha.

The party workers had taken out the procession without obtaining permission from the administration, a police officer said.

“We had put up a barricade at the Boring Road crossing to prevent the procession, which was being taken out without permission, from reaching the VIP area,” Sub-Divisional Police Officer (Sachivalaya, Patna) Saket Kumar said.

He said the Congress workers tried to break the barricades and some of them also hurled stones at police personnel, following which “mild use of force and water cannon were resorted to”.

“Some of the policemen suffered injuries. They were administered first-aid. A case is also being lodged against the procession participants,” the district police said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Srinivas B V, the national president of Youth Congress, who was leading the procession, said, “A barbaric lathicharge on a peaceful procession seeking to highlight issues like unemployment, price rise and paper leak and in protest against schemes like Agniveer.” Srinivas was addressing a press conference at Sadaqat Ashram, the Bihar Congress headquarters, where those present included legislature party leader Shakil Ahmed Khan and media cell chairman Rajesh Rathore.

Khan slammed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally, the BJP, for “putting on back burner real issues” and indulging in “rhetoric of anti-paper leak law, while turning a blind eye to the state's universities, where exams are not held on time, and posts have remained vacant for years”.

Rathore said the Congress will on Thursday stage demonstrations at all district headquarters “in protest against the police action at the behest of the autocratic NDA government in Bihar”. PTI NAC RBT