Police use water cannon against protesting Cong workers; Bittu, Ashu detained

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 27

Police resorted to water cannons to disperse around 400 Congress workers, who were protesting against the alleged deteriorating law and order situation in the state here on Friday.

Congress workers led by MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, Congress Legislature Party deputy leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu and District Congress Committee president Gurpreet Gogi gathered outside the closed and barricaded gates of the Mini-Secretariat here.

The protesters wanted to give bangles to the police commissionerate as the government had allegedly failed to maintain law and order in the state.

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Before the protest, Congress workers while giving speeches at the tent set up nearby said the government and police should wear bangles and sit back as they were unable to control the law and order.

The Congress workers raised slogans, while carrying placards with photo-shopped pictures of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia wearing bangles. The water-cannon vehicle stationed inside the gate of Mini-Secretariat was turned on within 15 minutes to disperse the protesters, many of whom pelted the vehicle with stones to mark their protest. They also threw the bangles they had brought along as a mark of protest. The protesters regrouped again after some time.

Another water-cannon vehicle was brought in and pressed into service. Gogi was detained by the police. Amid the thinning number of protesters, Bittu and Ashu were also detained and taken aboard a bus. They were let off after some Congress workers blocked the way of the bus and they again joined the protest. Bittu and Ashu, along with others, were again detained.