SP protest peaceful

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, AUG. 9. The Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Party programme to organise protest demonstrations across the State today against the `misrule' of the State Government passed off peacefully with no major incident reported from anywhere. While the SP leaders described the programme as a complete success, Government sources said the situation was by and large normal and police did not have to use force.

There were also conflicting reports about the number of arrests. While the party leader, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, claimed arrest of over one lakh people, the Principal Secretary, Home, Mr. Naresh Dayal, said only 7,628 were arrested. These included preventive arrests and those arrested for substantive offences.

Talking to newsmen here, Mr. Yadav congratulated his party workers, leaders and the people of the State on the success of the programme. He said shops and business establishments remained closed in many districts. Trains were stopped at many places including Jhansi, Hardoi, Ferozabad and Etawah.

What had made the agitation significant was that the people had come out in support of his party despite the threats by the Chief Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh. The support was unprecedented with all sections of the people, including students, traders, farmers and lawyers joining the programme, he said.

Mr. Yadav alleged that the administration had unleashed a reign of terror to browbeat his party supporters. Thousands of the arrested had been injured in police action.

Some of the districts where the protest programme totally disrupted normal life were Lucknow, Ferozabad, Kanpur, Etawah, Allahabad, Varanasi, Azamgarh and Ambedkar Nagar. Mr. Yadav alleged that in Ambedkar Nagar, police resorted to a `brutal' lathicharge on his party activists and nearly 100 persons, including the former Minister, Mr. Ram Lakhan Verma, were injured. Party leaders, MLAs and MLCs were injured in Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Bareilly also, he said.

The Principal Secretary denied the reports of lathicharge and said police had no occasion to use force anywhere. According to reports received from District Magistrates, the strike call had evoked a mixed response. While in some districts in central Uttar Pradesh, the strike was almost complete elsewhere it had little impact.

He said more than 2,000 people were arrested in Lucknow. In other districts also the authorities took S.P. activists into custody apprehending breach of peace. In Jhansi SP activists who stopped the Shatabdi Express by disconnecting its hose pipe, were arrested on substantive charges.

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