JANGAON/HYDERABAD: THE police unleashed a wave of terror against BJP workers who were protesting against the removal of Swami Vivekananda’s flexis set up in Jangaon town on Tuesday on the occasion of his 158th birth anniversary which has been declared as National Youth Day.The police broke up the crowd who were staging a protest at the municipal office, beat them up and let out a torrent of invective against them. A few of the youths shot videos of the police’s excesses and posted them on social media platforms, which immediately became viral.
Earlier in the day, Jangaon town BJP president Varanasi Pavan Sharma fixed flexis and banners in the town on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s 158th Birth Anniversary’. But Jangaon Municipal officials pulled the posters and flexis down. Furious with the police action, he led BJP activists to the Municipal office and staged a protest in front of the municipal commissioner’s cabin. They raised slogans against the State government. They questioned why the municipal officials were not pulling down the flexis and banners of the ruling party in the town.
Learning about the agitation, Jangaon town police inspector D Mallesh Yadav and his team arrived at the spot and shifted them to the police station where they beat them up. “The protest was peaceful until an inspector came charging at them and started lathi-charging them, using abusive language,” said Pavan Sharma, who was also beaten up.
Furious with the police brutality, BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar set a 24-hour deadline to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to take action against the police officers who lathi-charged the BJP workers, and warned that otherwise, the BJP workers would lay siege to Pragati Bhavan.
Speaking to mediapersons, Sanjay Kumar said the Chief Minister will understand the protesters’ pain if his son was treated in the same fashion. “What was their crime? The CM will go down in history as an inhuman monster unless he takes remedial measures,” he said. He warned the DGP that BJP will lay a siege to the DGP’s office if no action was taken.