Around 30 people, including 10 police personnel, were injured in violence during a 12-hour shutdown on Wednesday by an outfit to protest against the introduction of queue system for devotees in Jagannath Temple in Odisha's Puri district.
The violence erupted during the dawn-to-dusk shutdown in the seaside pilgrim town called by Sri Jagannath Sena after the police picked up its convener Priyadarshan Patnaik and held him under preventive detention.
The outfit had given a call for 'Puri bandh' soon after the queue system was introduced in the temple on Monday on an experimental basis.
Asserting that the stir would be further intensified, Patnaik said the manner in which the new system was introduced had hurt the sentiments of a large number of devotees.
Activists of Sri Jagannath Sena and the locals held a demonstration demanding the immediate release of Patnaik. They also blocked the 'Bada Danda' - the Grand Avenue facing Jagannath Temple by burning tyres in a number of places.
A mob barged into the 12th century shrine, uprooted barricades erected on 'Baisi Pahacha', the 22 steps leading from the main gate to the shrine and near the 'Singhadwara' (the Lion Gate) and ransacked the office of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), police said. As the 'Bada Danda' virtually turned into a battleground, police lobbed teargas shells and resorted to lathi-charge to control the situation, they said. The police outpost and an information centre near the 'Singhadwara' and the town police station were ransacked by the unruly mob, which burnt tyres and indulged in stone pelting, a senior police official said. Around 30 people, including 10 police personnel, were injured in stone pelting by bandh supporters and subsequent police action to control the situation, police said. PTI