Viral Video: During the Bharat Bandh over reservation issues, a major clash broke out between protesters and police in Patna, Bihar. The city has witnessed high voltage scenes in the Wednesday morning as the demonstrators blocked the major roads, disrupting the traffic and causing quite a chaos.
Protests Disrupt Patna’s Bailey Road
Protests began early as bandh supporters came out on the streets and blocked Bailey Road, one of the main thoroughfares of Patna. This paralyzed the traffic for more than three hours and caused them to delay excessively, causing lots of inconvenience to the emergency services. The situation heightened as protesters, who had come out in huge numbers, obstructed roads near Ruknpura and Dakbungla Chowk—amplifying the tension.
The police had to lathi charge to scatter the agitated crowd and restore calm. In the action, Sadar SDO of Patna Srikant Kundlik Khandekar was allegedly beaten up, which only heightened the matters. Deputy SP Ashok Kumar Singh said, “The unwillingness on the part of protesters to listen to instructions and disturb public life has forced the use of force.”. Mild force was justified by Singh, saying that the protest had gone awry, affecting the law and order situation and hindering normal movement.
Clash Between Protesters and Police Results in Injury
People expressed their views in comment section of the video posted by “Narendra Nath Mishra.” One person wrote, ” Muskuraiye aap Patna me hain.” Another person said, “Bihar for a reason.” One more person said, “iski baad me alag se sutaai hogi.” It was a pitched battle with stones hurled at cops, leaving one of them injured, and lathi charge was needed to wrest control. It took the cops just two minutes to scatter the mob and clear the road for traffic.
The incident thus puts a light on the challenges of high-stakes demonstrations and underlines the tension between maintaining law and order and attending to the grievances of protesters. Force in this kind of incidents thus constantly evokes debate related to the balance between security and civil liberties.
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