Thirteen people were injured on Sunday after police lathicharged and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse stone-pelting villagers protesting the completion of a steel plant's boundary wall here, officials said. The villagers of Purushottampur, from whom land had been acquired in 2007 for IISCO Steel Plant's modernisation and expansion, were demanding jobs while objecting to the completion of the boundary wall.
They tried to stop work when a gap in the wall was being covered, Subrata Gangopadhyay, ADCP of Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate, said. The clash took place when police personnel present there intervened and the villagers started pelting stones at them, injuring one, he said. A contingent of police and RAF which later arrived was also attacked by them, Gangopadhyay said, adding police then lathicharged and lobbed teargas shells leading to 12 people suffering injuries.
Chandrasekhar Roy, one of the injured and a leader of the Purushottampur Jamihara Committee, an organisation of those whose land had been acquired, and six others were arrested in this connection, he said.
The villagers later demonstrated in front of Law Minister Malay Ghatak's residence at Purushottampur for sometime.
