500 people booked for assaulting shopkeepers

Etah, Jan 5 (UNI) At least 500 people, including a former Nagar Palika Parishad President, have been charged with manhandling shopkeepers during 'black day' organised by the ruling Samajwadi Party to protest against the execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Police said the trouble started when SP workers compelled the shopkeepers to close their shops.

On being refused, the activists allegedly thrashed the traders and destroyed their property in Marhara area.

Meanwhile, people of two communities resorted to stone pelting, in which two people were injured, police added.

Irked over the incident, traders called a band today. Local police had been deployed to avoid any fresh violence.

Meanwhile, 500 persons, including former Nagar Palika Parishad (Marhara) President Parvez Zuberi have been charged for manhandling the shopkeepers.

SP activists shouted anti-US and anti-Bush slogans, protesting the ''illegal hanging'' of Saddam. They also burnt the effigy of the US president near Haidar Chowk in Marhara town last evening in Etah.

Similar reports of violence were received from Agra, Unnao, and Sitapur districts.

In Agra, demonstrators pelted stones at a tourist bus, which was on the way to the Taj Mahal, while in Unnao and Sitapur minor clashes occurred over closure of markets.

Train services were particularly affected in Lucknow and Allahabad, when protestors squatted on tracks. Reports of disruption of trains were received from Etawah, Varanasi, Mainpuri and other places.

The 69-year-old deposed Iraqi leader -- Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30.

Earlier on November 5, a US-sponsored court in Baghdad had sentenced Saddam to death by hanging after he was found guilty of crimes against humanity for his role in the killing of 148 Shi'ite villagers in Dujail province, following an attempt on his life in 1982.

UNI