Tear gas, water canons used on Left protesters in Kolkata

Kolkata Police on Friday lobbed tear gas shells, and used batons and water cannons to disperse thousands of students and youth wing activists of the Left parties as they protested against unemployment while advancing towards the state Secretariat.

A number of protesters were injured, some of them fainted, and a few of them were seen bleeding, as police in riot gear charged at them and beat them up with sticks.

A senior police officer though alleged that several security personnel were injured as the protestors hurled stones and even resorted to indiscriminate bombings near Mallik Phatak in Howrah.

The activists representing 12 student and youth organisations had started a rally on Thursday from Singur, about 40 kilometers from the city. It is also the original site of the Nano plant of Tata Motors which had abandoned the facility in October, 2008, after an intense and often violent peasant movement led by then opposition leader and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.

The rallyists, who halted at Dankuni on Thursday night, resumed their march from Howrah station towards Nabanna around Friday noon demanding industrialisation and jobs.

The police had put up a number of barricades. The clash started when the protestors tried to march forward breaking and breaching those obstacles.