Police open fire on violent mob at Barkagaon

Around two dozen people, including policemen, were injured on Friday evening when a violent mob clashed with police near Dhenga village of Barkagaon block where construction work of R&R Colony for displaced people by NTPC Coal Projects is going on.Senior district and police officials were camping at Barkagaon till the filing of this report where situation is reorted to be tensed but under control.

Trouble began after MlA Nirmala Devi and her husband, Ex-Minister Yogendra Sao, led  a mob towards Dhenga village where construction of NTPC's R&R Colony is going on to stop the work after being denied permission by local administration to organise their Kissan Adhikar Rally cum meeting at Gurudayal Mahto High School at Barkagaon.

MlA Nirmala Devi and her husband Ex-Minister Yogendra Sao had sought permission to organise a rally cum meeting in the premises of Gurudayal Mahto High School at 12 noon but local administration declined their request and invoked Section 144 in the area.As the mob of about 200-250 people led by MlA and Ex-Minister reached near the construction site police stopped them. Ex-Minister became angry and got into a heated argument broke out between him and the police. 

During this hot exchange of words some people from the mob started throwing stones on the police force injuring Circle Officer of Barkagaon Pyarelal, Inspector Awdhesh Kumar Singh, OIC Barkagaon PS and some jawans. Police resorted to lathi-charge to chase away the mob but the situation took a turn for the worse when some persons torched the vehicle of Barkagaon BDO and MlA Nirmala Devi. Two bikes also turned into ashes due to this fire. Police opened fire in which at least six persons got bullet injuries. Injured  were sent to Hazaribagh Sadar Hospital for treatment.

At about 5 pm vehicles from Barkagaon started coming to Sadar Hospital, Hazaribagh, with the injured. Till the filing of this report 9 persons were admitted in the hospital whose treatment was going on and according to doctors all are out of danger.Two newsmen Mantu Soni and Deepak Sinha also got injured in the clash. Mantu Soni has received bullet injury while Deepak Sinha has been hit by a stone on his face. Other persons having bullet injuries are Jubaida Khatoon, Santosh Ram, Sunny Deval Kumar, Srichandra Kumar and Sanjay Ram.