Several injured in police action in Jammu

JAMMU - More than two dozen refugees from Pakistan-administered Kashmir were injured in a baton charge by police here Tuesday as they held a protest sit-in against being denied permission to meet the all-party delegation now on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir.

The refugees, who had come to Jammu at the time of partition in 1947, were staging a sit-in at a park in Vikram Chowk when the police resorted to baton charge to disperse them. Some alleged they were beaten with gun butts.

“I was hit with gun butts and kicked by policemen. They also hurled abuses at us,” Jaspal Mangat, a leader of SOS, the organisation that represents the people, told IANS.

Mangat accused Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of having issued directions that “PoK refugees should not be allowed to meet the delegation.”

“It’s ironical that Omar, on the one hand, facilitated the delegation members’ meeting with the separatist leaders, and on the other hand he has ordered a crackdown on the real sufferers,” Rajiv Chuni, another leader of the refugees, told reporters.

“The protesters were trying to create a law and order situation,” a police officer told IANS, explaining the police action, but declined to answer why gun butts and boots were used to disperse the protesters.

The all-party delegation arrived in Jammu Tuesday after meeting a cross-section of the people in Srinagar in an effort to find a way out of the violence that has gripped the valley, where more than 100 people have been killed in renewed unrest since June 11.