Six injured as police foil protest march in J&K

Srinagar: Six persons were injured on Wednesday when Jammu and Kashmir police foiled a protest march of government employees in support of their demands, including regularisation of daily-wage and casual workers.

Hundreds of employees of Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department assembled near Press Colony here and tried to march towards the Chief Engineer`s office, but were stopped by police who asked them to disperse, official sources said. The employees insisted on going ahead with the protest, following which police used batons to disperse them, sources said, adding that 20 protestors, including some of their leaders, were taken into preventive custody. The protest call was given by Kashmir PHE Joint Employees Association in support of its demands for regularisation of daily wage workers, casual labourers and need-based workers. They also demanded their pending salaries be released and paid regularly. The employees threatened to launch massive protests from April 18 if their demands were not met. PTI