Police lathicharged Dalit rally, 3 Congress leaders arrested

Gandhinagar, Mar 8 (UNI) Several persons, including policemen, were injured when police lathi-charged the participants of a Dalit rally and arrested Congress leaders following stone pelting by workers who were prevented from entering Info city here.

Police arrested Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Arjun Modhwadia and two other Congress leaders and several workers after they tried to break the police cordon near Info City after addressing a Dalit rally this morning.

Mr B K Hariprasad, General Secretary, AICC and incharge of Gujarat affairs and Mr Mukul Vasnik, former general secretary, AIIC were also arrested alongwith Mr Modhwadia.

The police lobbed tear gas shells and lathi-charged several participants of the rally after the horse-mounted police tried to stop the 20,000 strong Dalit rally near Info City as the prohibitory orders were in force due to the ongoing assembly session.

As the police prevented the rallists to move ahead, the mob turned hostile and began throwing stones at the police force. The police then lobbed several tear gas shells and resorted to lathicharge to disperse the mob.

A police sub-inspector Brahmbhatt was injured and several policemen sustained minor injuries in the stone-pelting.

Earlier, Mr Modhwadia and other Congress leaders addressed the rallist for two hours.

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