March to Nabanna: Police fire tear gas shells, lathi-charge violent Left protesters in Kolkata

A rally arranged by the Left Front of West Bengal on Monday, May 22, took a violent turn when several protesters and party leaders clashed with police.

According to reports, protesters started pelting stones at around 1 pm which forced police to lathi-charge and lob tear gas shells. The clash left a few protesters and policemen injured. It has brought traffic in a few places of the city to a standstill.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) has also taken to Twitter to inform people about the roads that have been closed due to the rally. 

The rally was heading towards Nabanna to protest against a slew of issues, including farmers' distress, unemployment in the state and maintaining communal harmony. The 4 lakh supporters have also demanded maintenance of democratic rights of the people of West Bengal.

Meanwhile, 2,000 security personnel, including Rapid Action Force, were deployed to prevent the crowd from reaching the office of the State Secretariat and maintaining law and order.

"We will stop the rallies before those reach 144 zones by setting up barricades and we have arranged water cannons and tear shell launchers to disperse protesters if they try to make any violence," a police officer had said prior to the rally.

The Opposition was also determined to make their demands be heard. "Our rallies will hit the door of Nabanna today with our demands. We have directed our comrades to be prepared for any situation," CPI-M state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra had told mediapersons.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Salim of the Communist Party has said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has turned West Bengal into a police state. He also added that policemen were all goons in disguise.

Banerjee was not at Nabanna during the protest march as she was hosting an administrative review meeting in Birbhum district.