11 scribes among 83 hurt in Tripura police action

Agartala, July 11 (bdnews24.com)?At least 83 people, including 11 photojournalists, have been injured in baton charge on the Congress supporters by Tripura police and Tripura State Rifles (TSR).

The Congress supporters were on Sunday opposing the common entrance test (CET) of Tripura Medical College (TMC) demanding that 85 of the 100 seats should be filled up by students qualifying in the state joint entrance examination.

Police said the forces resorted to lathi charge as Congress workers tried to stop the examinees.

Forty-four of the injured, including three journalists, were treated at Agartala Government Medical College while 39 released after first aid.

Senior Congress leader and MLA Gopal Roy said police had resorted to baton charge on the Congress workers without any provocation.

The police, he alleged, had attacked the Congress protestors under pressure from the ruling Left Front chief minister Manik Sarkar.

The state police chief K Sail Ali had announced on Saturday that he was instructed to ensure that the examination was held peacefully.

Roy said 85 seats should be filled by students of Tripura, who are qualifying in JEE, as TMC is a government medical college and the rest 15 seats could be kept reserved for central pool.

Roy alleged that the state government, taking huge capitation money in the back door wanted to fill up 55 seats from JEE and 30 by those who qualify in the CET.

The director of health service in an affidavit said, "TMC is a government college to get the approval of Medical Council of India (MCI)."

Meantime, the media fraternity had protested against the attack on the photo and TV journalist.

Scribes sat in front of the police headquarters to protest against the police atrocity and demanded strict action against those police personnel who were involved in the attack on media people.

Jayanta Bhattacharjee, President of Agartala Press Club, condemning the incident said the media fraternity was united against the police atrocity and demanded judicial enquiry.

Later DGP Tripura Police K Salim Ali came out to express his sadness on the incident and gave assurance that he would do enquiry on the incident and take action against those found guilty.

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