PDP activists injured in lathicharge during protest rally against CM

Some PDP activists were Friday allegedly injured in a lathicharge in Jammu by the police when they were trying to disperse a protest rally called by the party to demand resignation of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and others in connection with the death of National Conference (NC) worker Syed Yusuf.

Led by General Secretary Balbir Singh and former MP and Vice-President TS Bajwa, PDP activists took out the rally from the party headquarters in Gandhi Nagar area. They were demanding resignation of Omar, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah and Deputy Home Minister Naseer Wani. 

Amid anti-government slogans, the protesters blocked the Jammu-Srinagar national highway as they marched. The police asked them to clear it and later resorted to canecharge to disperse them and clear the highway for the resumption of traffic.

Protesters then allegedly clashed with the police which left some PDP activists injured.

"We told them to protest at Bikram Chowk. But they held the protest on the highway and blocked traffic. We were duty bound to clear the blockade," SP South Rajeshwar said.

There was no heavy canecharge on them and none of them was critically injured, he said, refuting the allegations levelled by the PDP.

However, PDP General Secretary Daman Bashin claimed that two persons were critically injured and nine suffered minor injuries.