SDPO, six cops hurt in clash among BJP, BJD workers at Athagarh
CUTTACK: At least seven police personnel sustained injuries, three of them critically, after allegedly being attacked by BJP and BJD workers during a clash in front of the Athagarh block office on Tuesday. Police said, the clash erupted as some BJP workers were trying to prevent Athagarh MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain from entering the block office to attend a panchayat samiti meeting.
Athagarh SDPO Biswajit Mohanty, and sub-inspector of Tigiria pol ice stat ion Biswajit Jena and OSAP constable Abinash Veer who sustained serious i n j u r i e s were rushed to the SCB medical college and hospital here. According to reports, when the senior BJD leader and former minister reached the venue, he was confronted by a group of BJP workers.
The latter, shouting slogans of 'Raja Swain go back', tried to stop him from entering the block office to attend the meeting. The BJD workers, in a bid to counter them started raising slogans of 'Raja Swain Zindabad'. Soon, both the groups began pelting stones and eggs at each other. Police rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control and in the process, seven cops sustained injuries.
The matter escalated to such an extent that the administration had to clamp prohibition order under section 163 of the BNS Act. Three platoons of police forces were deployed to avert any further untoward incident. 'We tried to pacify both the groups but they did not heed our requests and continued pelting eggs and stones at each other.
Eventually, we had to resort to lathi charge to disperse them. Around 50 workers of both the political parties who indulged in the violence and attacked the police have been arrested,' said a senior police officer. After the situation was brought under control, Swain participated in the meeting. Local units of both the BJP and BJD accused each other of starting the violence and demanded strong action against their rivals.
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