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| Police use brute force against PDD casual labourers | | Dozens injured, scores arrested | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, July 29: Police used force, resorted to lathi-charge and lobbed water cannons on casual labourers of Power Development Department (PDD) while foiling their march towards Civil Secretariat that was to be carried by the protesters in support of their demands.
Some of the casual labourers were injured in the incident while as scores others were arrested by the police. The police action led to disruption of pedestrian movement and also traffic movement in some of the important areas of Srinagar city.
The protesters were demanding fulfillment of their demands including release of their pending wages at the earliest.
Hundreds of daily wagers and casual labourers of PDD under the banner of All J&K Casual Labourers Union (Power Development Department) assembled at the Press Enclave here and started raising slogans in support of their demands. These daily wagers drawn from various districts of Kashmir valley alleged that the state government is turning a blind eye towards their genuine demands.
The protesters at Press Enclave started to move towards the Civil Secretariat but they were stopped by the police personnel posted. However, some of the groups of the protesters managed to give police a slip and assembled at some other places. These protesters were also joined by the casual labourers who marched towards Civil Secretariat from the PDD office at Basant Bagh here.
At Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) the police personnel were caught unawares when they saw a group of protesters marching towards the Civil Secretariat.
The police personnel swooped on this group of protesters and carried out lathi-charge on them. This led to disruption of activities at this important city centre. Some of the protesters were injured in the police action while as many others were taken into custody by the police.
Yet another group managed to reach Jahangir Chowk, in the vicinity of Civil Secretariat and they carried out strong protests in support of their demands.
These protesters were asked by the police deployed there to disperse peacefully. However, casual labourers offered stiff resistance, prompting police to resort to water cannons and baton charge.
At this place at least four causal labourers identified as Jahangir Ahmad Dar, Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, Abdul Hameed and Hilal Ahmad were injured in the police action. The police also arrested around 50 casual labourers who tried to proceed towards the secretariat despite use of force and water cannons.
The protesters said that despite elapsing of 17 months, promise made by the government to release wages has not been fulfilled.
They threatened to intensify their agitation if their demands are not met by August 5. The protesters said that they will carry out hunger strike from August 5 at Lal Chowk if the demands are not met by them.
CPI (M) State Secretary M Y Tarigami condemned the use of force and extended his support to the protesting casual labourers.
Tarigami said that there was no justification for the police to use force against the casual labourers and workers who were protesting in support of their demands. |
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