NEW DELHI: Police on Friday used tear gas and batons on Jan 18 and 19 to disperse violent demonstrators protesting the U S action in the Gulf at several places in the capital. India is traditionally an Iraqi ally.
Riot police lobbed about 25 tear gas shells at hundreds of protestors who broke the police cordon outside the U S embassy Friday afternoon and ran towards the embassy gate police said.
A breakaway group of demonstrators went up to the British High Commission where police resorted to a baton charge to disperse them. The protest was organized by Indian left parties and some Iraqi students. No one was injured in police action but police registered a case of rioting a senior police officer said.
Another crowd of demonstrators turned violent near the country’s largest mosque the Jama Masjid prompting another baton charge. The protestors raised anti U S slogans burnt an effigy of President George Bush and hurled stones and soda water bottles. Though the situation was now calm and shops were open tension prevailed in the area police said. Senior police officers have rushed to the spot to supervise law and order arrangements
In a statement the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemned the police attack on demonstrators outside the American embassy.
The party urged the government to allow the people to express their indignation at the war launched by U S imperialism.
Students of New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University held a noisy demonstration outside the American center and Iraqi Embassy demanding withdrawal of all aggressive forces from the gulf
And restoration of peace in the area.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 25, 1991
