Kolkata: Free-for-all at unplanned march towards Lalbazar

KOLKATA: An unplanned foray by BJP workers towards Lalbazar ended in scuffles and fisticuffs between cops and about a hundred BJP workers; the burning of the police vehicle happened here and it was followed by several minutes of mayhem in which several businesses and properties were damaged.
Santragachhi in Howrah was the other major conflagration point as rallyists, stopped from moving towards Nabanna, played a cat-and-mouse game with cops for over three hours from 1 pm.BJP supporters first tried to break through a three-layer police cordon near the railway station.

Cops pushed them back with water-cannon charges but rallyists, after retreating for some time, came back armed with bricks picked up from along the highway and stone chips picked up from railway tracks as well as glass bottles and bamboo shafts. This was repeated several times, with cops using water cannons and tear gas and BJP workers pushing them back with projectiles.
Rallyists from some of these points, including a large group from Howrah Maidan, reached the vicinity of the Howrah station around 4 pm. Another group, comprising BJP supporters who had vandalised the Lalbazar area and those returning from Howrah bridge, blocked Central Avenue for some time to press for their leaders’ release. The crowd at Hastings, led by assembly opposition leader Adhikari, dispersed relatively quickly. There were some moments of tension as Suvendu Adhikari tried to ward off female cops. “Don’t touch my body. I am male, you are a lady,” he said as cops closed in on him, forced him into a police van and took him to Lalbazar.