BJP activists baton charged in Lucknow
Lucknow, April 29 (IANS) Several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists were assaulted with batons and detained here Friday after they clashed with police during demonstrations against the Congress and other parties for rejecting parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the 2G spectrum scam.
Shouting slogans against the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a large number of BJP activists who included the party's state president Surya Pratap Shahi, hit the streets and headed towards the Vidhan Sabha.
When prevented, some of the BJP activists turned violent and pelted stones at the police who later baton charged the protesters and used water canons in order to disperse them, police said.
"We have learnt that at least a dozen of our activists have been injured in the incident. Several of our workers, who were coming out of the BJP office to join the protest were unnecessarily targeted by the police officials, who barged inside the party's office," BJP state spokesperson Vijay Pathak told reporters here.
"The rejection of the PAC report on the 2G scam clearly reflects how SP, BSP and Congress work in co-ordination," he alleged.
Senior BJP leader and PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi Thursday came under attack after 11 PAC members from the Congress, the DMK, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party rejected an interim report on 2G scam and demanded Joshi's resignation.
Joshi walked out of the meeting but the remaining members appointed Saifuddin Soz to preside over the meeting and moved a resolution to reject the report.