GUWAHATI: The All Assam Students Union (AASU) on Tuesday staged road blockade across Assam to protest the alleged assault of its members by ruling BJP and police highhandedness during a demonstration by AASU at Nalbari recently.
AASU activists blocked national highways and important roads in most parts of the state for one hour from 11 am to register their protest. The activists blocked the NH bypass at Basistha here, bringing traffic to a standstill. Similar blockades were staged in several parts, including Nalbari, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Chirang, Abhyapuri.
The protest is against the alleged assault of AASU members by BJP workers and police highhandedness during a demonstration by AASU in Nalbari a few days back during a visit of the chief minister.
Meanwhile, BJP state president Ranjeet Dass on Tuesday alleged that the culprits behind the assault at Nalbari were a couple of local Congress members. He alleged that these Congress members were former AASU activists and were now in leadership position of local Congress unit.
Addressing a press conference here, Dass showed pictures of Congress workers being present among the AASU protestors on that day. “The Congress was involved in the Ghograpara incident in Nalbari district. We have evidence of Congress being involved in it,” he said. Dass claimed that the Congress is engaging in such incidents with a malafide intention to spoil AASU’s name and ruin its image.
“They want to create a rift between the BJP and AASU. The Congress wants to ruin the image of AASU,” Dass claimed.
“The Congress workers had come with sticks and stones and attacked the AASU activists. The AASU will never protest with sticks. It was ministers Himanta Biswa Sarma and Chandra Mohan Patowary who controlled the situation from getting out of control,” he claimed. He urged the district administration and AASU to investigate into the incident.
BJP workers and AASU activists had allegedly clashed when the students’ organisations were protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill during a bike rally taken out by the saffron party workers to escort Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary who had gone to Nalbari for the foundation stone laying of a hospital by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
AASU, however, has alleged that its members were stopped and attacked by the BJP workers with sticks and stones and carried the violence to the police station too. (Agencies)
