Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 20: Police resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse the BJP Mahila Morcha and NC Women Wing activists who clashed with each other near BJP Party Headquarters at Kachi Chawni here this afternoon.
BJP claimed that six activists were injured in the lathi charge. The trouble started this afternoon after some NC Women Wing activists led by MLA, Bimla Luthra reached near BJP Headquarters at Kachi Chawni Chowk to protest against the State BJP president and MLA Nagrota, Jugal Kishore Sharma who had clashed with Minister of Social Welfare Sakina Itoo in the State Assembly yesterday.
As NC Women Wing workers alighted from the matador to protest at Kachi Chawni Chowk the BJP Women Wing activists who along with Party’s Yuva Morcha were also on dharna in front of Raj Bhawan to protest against the suspension of Jugal Kishore from the Assembly for raising his voice against those elements who were threatening the unity and integrity of the country also rushed towards the Kachi Chawni Chowk and pounced upon the NC Women Wing activists resulting into a clash between the two groups.
The BJP Mahila Morcha activists led by Priya Sethi also caught hold of Bimla Luthra and gave a thrashing to her and the other activists of the party.
Sensing trouble Bimla Luthra beat a hasty retreat in her vehicle. However the BJP Mahila Morcha activists chased the NC activists and gave them a good thrashing.
The drama continued for half an hour. To defuse the situation, police resorted to mild lathicharge on two warning factions. There was a complete traffic jam on busy Kachhi Chawni road.
Meantime, BJYM activists led by Ravinder Raina also reached from Governor House to Kachi Chawni Chowk and stated a protest there. They torched the effigy of State Government accusing it of siding with separatists and terrorists.
Priya Sethi said that NC Women Wing workers pleaded innocence saying that they were unaware of the protest as Bimla Luthra had lured them that she would get family pension sanctioned for them from Party office.
Earlier Mahila Morcha and BJYM activists led by BJP State chief, Jugal Kishroe Sharma, Mahila Morcha president, Priya Sethi and BJYM Chief Ravinder Raina took out a procession from Party office in the morning.
The Leader of Legislative Party Ashok Khajuria, senior leaders Dr. Nirmal Singh, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Usha Choudhary, Ramesh Arora, Bali Bhagat, Kavinder Gupta, Sukhnandan Kumar (MLA), Sham Choudhary (MLA), Sat Sharma (C.A), Yudhvir Sethi, Karan Singh, i and Surinder Bhagat were among others who led protest March to Raj Bhawan seeking Governor’s immediate intervention and dissolution of State Assembly in the wake of speaker’s ruling yesterday suspending Mr Sharma for the rest of the Assembly session under pressure from NC Ministers.
The protestors raising slogans against the Coalition Government led by Omar Abdullah demanded its immediate dismissal and imposition of Governor’s rule in the State.
The procession passed trough various markets and reached Panjtirthi where a dharna was held in front of Raj Bhawan and the effigy of coalition torched.
Addressing the protestors BJP State president Jugal Kishore Sharma made a scathing attack on Congress saying the criminal silence maintained by the party shows that it was hand in glove with NC’s hidden agenda and party was befooling people by making a drama to pull out from Government.
Jugal said it is fight between nationalist and anti-nationalists and BJP will unmask the hidden agenda of coalition.
Ashok Khajuria said that State Assembly has become a forum of pro-Pakistan elements. He said the NC led Government is a government of Pakistan agents.
Dr. Nirmal Singh said attack on BJP activists is undemocratic and deserves severe condemnation. He said BJP has always fought for rights of people and will continue to do so.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said yesterday’s happening in the State Assembly had thoroughly exposed the ruling party whose leaders did not have the courage to utter a single word against Afzal Guru but could only hit at soft targets among nationalist BJP members.
The BJP lodged an FIR against Bimla Luthra and her followers who had tried to attack the BJP office in Pacca Danga Police Station while NC Women Wing also filed a counter FIR against BJP Mahila Morcha in the same Police Station for attacking its activists.
Later, a memorandum against Jugal Kishore’s suspension from the House was submitted to the Governor under the signature of Leader of Legislature Party Ashok Khajuria, BJP Mahila Morcha President Priya Sethi and BJYM State President Ravinder Raina.
Suresh Jamwal, Bansi Lal Bharti, Mamta Singh, Munish Sharma, Rajni Sethi, Dr. Nirmal Kamal, Sanjeev Sharma, Arun Chhibber, Rajinder Sharma, Naresh Dogra, Ashok Kumar Khajuria, Pardeep Sharma, Sat Pal Pappi, Ashwani Sharma, Sanjay Baru, Praduman Singh, Vinay Gupta, Ayodhya Gupta, Sat Pal Choudhary, and Tarseem Choudhary were among the hundreds of participants who took part in protest.
Meanwhile, the Party activists led by Pawan Khajuria state secretary BJP staged a protest at Udhampur against the role of Coalition Government over Guru issue. They also expressed concern over the decision of Speaker for suspending Mr Jugal Kishore Sharma for rest of the Session.
The protestors torched the effigy of the coalition Government at Gole Market Udhampur.
BJP district president Dina Nath Bhagat, other leaders including Neelam Nargotra, Kamlesh, Pooja, Monika, Akshay Kumar, Jugal Kishore, Vijay Sharma and Rakesh Gutpa were among prominent who addressed the protest.