Kolkata: Roads of Kolkata and Howrah Tuesday turned into a battleground for protesters and the police, with water cannons, tear gas, stones and bricks raining down, injuring several as the administration blocked the student-led march on RG Kar to Bengal Secretariat, Nibna. Tried to stop. Hospital Rape-Murder Case
The police said that at least 37 of their personnel were injured in the clashes, mainly at five locations: Howrah Bridge-MG Road, Hastings-Princip Ghat, Suntra Gachi on the outskirts of the city, Foreshore Road-Mandartala and Howrah Maidan. Malik Fatak Clashes broke out at these locations when marchers ran into police barricades. Many of them were injured and had to be taken to hospital, but no official count was available as of late evening.
The first sounds of violence were felt around 1pm and it turned into a frenzy that lasted for over three hours. At each site, violence broke out when sections of the crowd – armed with stones, iron rods and bamboo poles – attacked policemen after the derailment, officials said.
Kolkata Police registered 11 FIRs on violence, released photographs of 21.
At least one official, Chanditla Circle Inspector Sanjeeb Ganguly, was seriously injured in stone pelting in Malik Phatak. He received five stitches on his head. The Kolkata Police, under fire from the courts after the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Hospital on August 9, released photographs of four cops with bloodied faces.
At Princep Ghat and Bhubazar in central Kolkata, police outnumbered the protesters and even threw guardrails at them. A video of a mob chasing a lone traffic policeman was doing the rounds on social media. Five police vehicles were damaged and at least one bike belonging to a policeman was set on fire in Babughat, officials said.
On Howrah's Foreshore Road, across the Hooghly that separates it from Kolkata, police lathi-charged a crowd that brought down 10-foot-high barricades. At some places, protesters sat on the streets.
In Santragachi, across from the historic Vidyasagar Setu, protesters climbing barricades faced water cannons. Similar scenes unfolded in Hastings.
Kolkata Police registered 11 FIRs related to the day's violence. A total of 245 people were arrested and 153 were detained for questioning. Police released photographs of 21 protesters, describing them as “inciters of violence” and appealing for information on their identities and whereabouts.
ADG (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar told reporters, “If we had not arrested some and recovered weapons and bombs from them, the situation could have been much worse.” In Syria, the BJP organized a march to the city's police headquarters at Lal Bazar, accusing protesters of atrocities and demanding the immediate release of those arrested and detained.
ADG Sarkar said, “The police showed courtesy and did not react to the provocation despite the attack.”