54 hurt as police canes Babri demonstrators in Aurangabad

AURANGABAD, DEC 6: Over 54 persons including ten journalists and 24 police officers were injured in Aurangabad today as a mob of around 16...

AURANGABAD, DEC 6: Over 54 persons including ten journalists and 24 police officers were injured in Aurangabad today as a mob of around 1600 persons turned violent in the premises of police headquarters (HQ) here. The mob, comprising activists of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Muslim Kruti Samiti (MKS), was protesting the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.

The city unit of the Samajwadi Party had announced a rasta roko today as a mark of protest while the city’s Shiv Sena activists had organised an aarti at the Hanuman Temple at Gulmandi. Both the events took place peacefully at their respective venues between 11 am and 12 noon today. The police detained around 800 SP activists, who participated in the rasta roko, in tents raised in the premises of the police HQ.

At around 3.30 pm, over 800 activists of the MKS staged a rasta roko in the very Nijamoddin Chowk where the SP activists had protested. City police commissioner Shripad Kulkarni and other senior policeofficers rushed to the spot and arrested the MKS activists. These protestors were also kept in the same tents, in the premises of the police HQ, as the SP activists.

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At about 5.30 pm the mob of around 1600 activists suddenly turned violent. Activists torched several police vehicles and broke furniture and window panes of the police HQ. Some activists forced their way into the police officers’ residential quarters as well. The police force in the HQ at that point of time was weak as several policemen had been deployed at various parts of the city. The police therefore resorted to lathicharge in which over 30 persons were injured. Twenty of them have been seriously injured and have been admitted to the city hospital.

The injured include K S Manojkumar, who is a correspondent with The Indian Express, beside nine other journalists. Some of the detained activists tried to snatch rifles belonging to the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) personnel. A bullet is said to have been fired in the melee addingto the confusion.

However, no one received bullet injuries.

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