Left supporters battle police in Howrah again

Howrah: Left supporters burnt the chief minister’s effigy on Grand Trunk Road on Saturday in protest against the police crackdown on student-youth activists a day earlier.
Traffic on the busy Gr-and Trunk Road was held up for over an hour, leading to congestion on Fore-shore Road when rally participants scuffled with police when they tried to clear the road on Saturday ev-ening.The anger spread after a Howrah court rema- nded all 23 Left supporters arrested on Friday in judicial custody till Monday.
The flashpoint on Saturday evening was Fazir Bazar, 600m from Mullick Phatak that had turned into a battle zone on Friday. Supporters of 12 Left mass organisations, including CPM’s labour arm Citu, took out a rally wearing bla-ck badges from Howrah District Library and walked a 4km stretch on GT Road during peak evening hours to Fazir Bazar shouting slogans against “police barbarism”.
Trouble broke out around 6pm when Left supporters stood on GT Road at the end of the rally. When police tried to clear the road, Left supporters scuffled with them. Police gave chase with lathis but restrained themselves from resorting to a lathi charge.
“There was no provocation from our end. Police got impatient and started pushing us off the road. They assaulted us yet again,” said Citu Howrah secretary Arup Roy.
There was brick-batting for a brief period. Left supporters alleged that police in plain clothes, joined by TMC supporters, threw stones at the protesters. TMC Howrah president Ramesh Kasikar instead blamed the Left for throwing stones at the police.
Assistant police commissioner (South) Alok Dasgupta said Left supporters misbehaved with cops and shouted provocative slogans against them.