5 injured in police firing near Yavatmal

Nagpur, Dec 8 (UNI) Five persons were seriously injured when Police opened fire today to disperse hundreds of farmers protesting the manner in which cotton was being graded and the delay in the procurement process at a purchase centre at Wani in Yavatmal district of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

Police initially resorted to a lathicharge after the farmers went berserk and later opened fire to disperse the agitated farmers, who indulged in heavy stone pelting.

Yavatmal district Superintendent of Police Abdur Rehman told UNI over telephone that a total of 60 persons, including 35 policemen, sustained minor injuries in stone pelting by farmers after a dispute with employees of the Maharashtra State Cotton Growers' Cooperative Marketing Federation overthe manner in which the cotton they had brought for sale was being graded.

The employees of the federation summoned the police, who first resorted to a lathicharge and then fired in the air to control the situation, and subsequently opened fire to disperse the crowd, Mr Rehman said.

Additional police reinforcemnets were being rushed from the district headquarters in Yavatmal to Wani.

Special Inspector General of Police (IGP), Amravati Range, V D Mishra said he was leaving for Wani to visit the spot.

Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a voluntary organisation working among farmers in the region, claimed in a statement tonight that seven persons, including a woman, were injured in the firing, and the condition of four of them was serious.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Maharashtra unit President Nitin Gadkari has condemned the firing on farmers.

UNI AB MJ/OBB MSJ DB2220