MUMBAI: More than 10 police personnel received injuries in an incident of stone-pelting, following a protest march against the naked parade and sexual assault of two women in Manipur, when protestors turned violent at Satana town in Nashik district of Maharashtra, officials said.
A number of persons have been detained by police in connection with the violent incident which is reported to have taken place on Saturday evening and the situation was later brought under control, Superintendent of Police (SP) Shahaji Umap said.
The Eklavya Adivasi Sanghatana, along with a few other tribal organizations, apart from the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, reportedly organised a protest march in the town in condemnation of the incident in Manipur where two women from the Kuki community, a hill-dwelling tribal clan that has been on the warpath against the majority Meiteis, were paraded naked and sexually assaulted by a mob on May 4.
A ‘leaked’ video of the horrific incident surfaced on the internet on July 19 and soon went viral, leading to outrage and condemnation by people from across the country and beyond it. Soon there were protests by women organizations in different parts of the country.
A similar protest was organized in this Maharashtra town on Saturday, where thousands of young men, with some of them with their upper bodies bare as a mark of protest, participated in the march, a local police official said.
After the start of the march from the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar statue, when they approached the tehsil office, some of the participants started a sit-in demonstration in front of the Satana police station, with the demand that local BJP MLA Dilip Borse accept their memorandum, the official said.
The police officials then proceeded to tell them that the MLA could not accept their memorandum in person as he was in Mumbai attending the Assembly session, he said.
Upon getting this reply, heated arguments were sparked off and some of the protesters even pelted stones at the police and passing vehicles, forcing the police to resort to a "mild lathicharge", the official said.
Soon tension prevailed in the town, with shops and other business establishments started downing their shutters, fearing an escalation in the situation following the incident.
"Ten police personnel were injured in the incident and we have taken 21 people, who indulged in stone-pelting, into custody. The incident took place after the protest march. Additional force was called in immediately. The situation is now peaceful," SP Umap told reporters on Saturday (July 29).
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