By Bunty Mahajan
Ramban: Vehicular traffic along the Jammu-Srinagar national highway remained suspended since Friday morning as Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists, a student wing of the saffron BJP, blocked the road at Ramban in protest against police lathicharge on them the previous evening when they were protesting demolition of a toilet block and a computer lab in the Government Higher Secondary School by the local administration there.
The police action snowballed into a major controversy with senior ABVP leaders taking to Twitter accusing local police of “brutally thrashing’’ ABVP activists protesting against “illegal’’ demolition of school labs and toilets for construction of oxygen plant by the administration at the GHSS Ramban and “arresting 12 activists is a very shameful act’’.
Additional Director General of Police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh responded on the micro blogging site saying “matter being looked into. The protestors were obstructing installation of oxygen plant at Ramban before 3rd wave which is a serious matter’’.
However, it did not cool down tempers. While ABVP activists at Ramban blocked the Jammu-Srinagar national highway throughout the day, those in Jammu city held a demonstration. Nearly a dozen of them were taken into custody by police after they tried to take out a procession from Press Club, sources said, adding they were later released in the evening.
The local administration had demolished a toilet block and a computer lab in the school to pave way for the installation of an oxygen plant for the adjoining Trauma Hospital ahead of the 3rd wave of COVID-19. This was the second oxygen plant to be installed at the district headquarters as the first one was earlier installed in the premises of district hospital at Ramban.
ABVP president Dr Parwinder Singh who rushed to Ramban after hearing about the police lathichare said that students were protesting against the demolition of toilet block and computer lab for the past four days. They were not opposed to the setting up of oxygen plant, but they only wanted the administration to simultaneously take up work on the construction of toilet block and computer lab, he added.
However, police led by local SHO on late Thursday eveing resorted to lathicharge on peacefully protestors and arrested nearly a dozen of them including five girls, he said. How can police keep someone in lock-up for more than 24 hours without registration of an FIR, he asked.
The DIG, DC and SP on Friday tried to persuade protesting ABVP activists lift their blockade of the highway, but the later refused to oblige until administration suspended the local SHO and unconditionally released those apprehended by the police. They also demanded withdrawal of FIR, if any, registered against them. Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles remained stranded on the road in view of the blockade raised by protestors. Passengers on way to Kashmir had a tough time sitting inside their vehicles under scorching heat.