ABVP members protest in J&K against 'police brutality', arrest of activists

Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad held massive protests in the Jammu region on Friday against alleged police brutality and arrest of ABVP activists during a demonstration organised here on August 26.

The traffic movement was disrupted in Jammu city and on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway due to the protests, police said.

Hundreds of protesters assembled in Jammu city on Friday and demanded suspension of the SHO of Ramban police station and a magisterial inquiry into the "beating" and arrest of its activists by the police.

They raised anti-police slogans and sat on a dharna in the city, disrupting traffic flow for over two hours. Following which, the police detained some of them and cleared the protest site.

"We took this step of detaining them as a preventive measure. This cannot be termed as a peaceful protest as they have disrupted the traffic," SP city Mohita Sharma said.

On Thursday night, scores of ABVP activists had staged a demonstration to protest against setting up of an oxygen plant on the land given for the construction of a higher secondary school and a district hospital.

BJP leaders from Ramban, including former MLA Neelam Kumar Lengah, had also participated in the demonstration.

The ABVP is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The protesters on Friday alleged that the Ramban Police had beaten up an ABVP worker and detained several others, including the outfit's district president Tarun Dev Singh, on Thursday night.

Talking to reporters here, General secretary of ABVP (Jammu) Mukesh Manhas claimed that over 30 activists were arrested on Thursday night.

"The ABVP has been protesting in Ramban for the past three days against the setting up of an oxygen plant on the school land,” he said.

Another protest was held on the Jammu-Srinagar highway by the ABVP activists, raising similar demands.

The police said the movement of vehicular traffic on the highway has been halted for the last several hours due to the protest.