Siliguri, Dec 7: Police fired teargas shells and used water cannons on Monday to quell a violent protest called by the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) against the Mamata Banerjee government during which a BJP worker died, officials said.
Several protesters and police personnel were injured in clashes. The BJP alleged that a party worker identified as Ullen Ray was “beaten to death” by the police during a baton charge. However, police claimed there was no lathicharge and the cause of death of the protester was being ascertained. The BJP condemned the police action and demanded imposition of president’s rule in West Bengal in view of “breakdown of law and order”.
The party has called a 12-hour bandh in north Bengal on Tuesday. BJP workers were seen fighting pitched battles with police after they were stopped from moving past barricades at two points near branch secretariat ‘Uttarkanya’ during the rally called to protest the TMC “misrule”.
The BJYM, the youth with of the BJP, led by its chief and Lok Sabha member Tejaswi Surya, took out two protest marches claiming the state government had not fulfilled the promises made to the people of north Bengal and that the benefits of welfare schemes had failed to reach the common man. Police used water cannons and burst tear gas shells to stop the protesters from marching to the secretariat and were pelted with stones. Agitators also set fire to some bamboo barricades. (PTI)
