Homeguard jawans clash with policemen

Lucknow: Homeguard jawans demanding job regularisation clashed with police here on Monday and damaged some vehicles, leading to a lathicharge to disperse them. Thousands of jawans from all over the state gathered this morning at Jhulelal park here, leading to chaos in the city. The situation took an ugly turn when a number of jawans, including some of their leaders, were detained by the police in a bid to control the situation, leading to resentment among the protestors, who clashed with police. Armed with sticks, the jawans attacked policemen deployed there and chased them away, besides damaging a number of vehicles parked there. Police then resorted to lathicharge to control them. A senior administration official said police is trying to control the situation as the jawans have dispersed to various parts of the city in large numbers and heavy police force has been deployed. Jawans claimed that 50,000 of them had gathered from the entire state in Lucknow to press for their regularisation, which was a long-pending demand.

"Over 24 of our colleagues were injured in the lathicharge," a jawan claimed.