Mangalore, January 18: The federation of Gram Panchayat presidents, vice-presidents and members on Wednesday demanded suspension of the police inspector and the personnel for carrying out lathicharge on innocent schoolchildren and the president of the Bajpe Gram Panchayat Shahul Hameed.
Speaking to reporters here Surendra Kambali, president of the union, threatened to launch a stir in front of the chief minister's office if immediate action was not taken against Circle Inspector Dinakar Shetty and his colleagues, who according to him, caned the young children and Mr. Hameed, who were staging a protest against the PWD personnel's bid to remove the humps in front of the Ansar English Medium School.
Since the existing humps had come off and the Gram Panchayat had decided to lay new humps. The PWD personnel had arrived at the venue to remove the existing humps before laying the new humps. The residents and the Gram Panchayat president had insisted that the humps should not be removed before the new humps had been put up. This had led to verbal exchange and the schoolchildren and the local residents had blocked the movement of vehicle in protest against the PWD's move.
But, in his bid to defuse the situation, Mr. Shetty ordered lathicharge which resulted in injuries to Mr. Hameed and several students of the Ansar school. The injured are Pavan Shetty, Shahir Anash, Naheem Hussain, Mohammed Shalim, Ismail Shafeeq and Mohammed Nabeer. They are Class 6,7 and 8 students of the school and are currently undergoing treatment, said Mr. Kambali.
Condemning the 'police brutality' he urged the government to immediately suspend the concerned officer and the policemen.
S.A. Razak Soorinje, secretary of the union, Raghu K. Ekkaru, president of Ekkaru Gram Panchayat, Narayana Bodhi, president Malavoor Gram Panchayat and U.P. Ibrahim, president of Gurupur Gram Panchayat and A.K. Abdul Sathar, former president of the he federation of Gram Panchayat presidents were present at the press meet.
On Tuesday, a delegation of Muslim Central Committee had met the State Human Rights Commission Chairman S.R. Nayak in Mangalore and demanded action against the guilty police officer and the staff.
The Popular Front of India and the Campus Front India have also condemned the incident.
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