Cops, jobless teachers in cat-and-mouse game in city centre, Salt Lake for 5 hours
Kolkata: Hundreds of cops and jobless teachers played a cat-and-mouse game across Sealdah, Esplanade and Salt Lake for five hours on Friday as police pulled out all the stops to thwart the SSC teachers' march to Nabanna.
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Kolkata Police detained 110 protesters, including 24 women, from Dorina crossing and near Sealdah station. All were taken to Lalbazar before being released.
The Eligible Teachers' Rights Forum had called for a shirtless march to Nabanna, demanding their job back and an alternative to fresh recruitment exam. As a group gathered at Sealdah station at 11 am, they met police resistance. Each cop on duty was provided with photos of the prominent faces of the teachers, who have been protesting against their job loss following the SC order.
Police checked the IDs before rounding them up.
Several protesters reported rough handling by police. A woman teacher claimed, "We were standing at the metro station when police insisted we boarded the prison van without explanation." Male teachers alleged being dragged by their collars. "We reached the Sealdah station at 9.30 am and a large number of woman cops were deployed. As soon as the unemployed teachers were spotted, they were taken away in police vehicles," said a senior officer.
The situation escalated when 200-odd protesters gathered outside Central Park metro station in Salt Lake. Some of the shirtless protesters reached Bikas Bhavan around 3.15 pm. Police initially requested them to put on their clothes, but when they refused, 10 men were detained. "We have been allowing them to stage a peaceful demonstration all these days, but we had to take action when it became a public nuisance," said a Bidhannagar City Police officer.
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Three women, who had tried to stop the detention, were picked up. None was arrested.
Forum convener Mehebub Mandal claimed they had emailed police about the march. "We will on Sunday observe Condemn Day against the cop attack on protesters," he said. A teacher shouted, "Let them kill us, shoot us."
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