Protesters set ablaze a fire tender on National Highway 28 in Muzaffarpur on Friday. Picture by Prakash Kumar

Muzaffarpur, Oct. 7: Fifteen villagers were injured when district police opened fire to disperse protesters who had gathered at Kanti Chowk near Kanti Thermal Power Station (KTPS) in the district headquarters today. Five policemen were also injured in the clash.

Section 144 of the CrPC was later imposed in the area to prevent further disturbance.

Sources said hundreds of residents of Kanti, Sherukahi, Sherna, Kusi, Gosaitola and Kothia villages had gathered at Kanti Chowk this morning to protest against the arrest of lawyer Ajay Kumar Sharma and five of his supporters.

Sharma and his aides were on a fast-unto-death outside KTPS since October 2 to demand round-the-clock power supply to the adjoining villages. They were picked up by the security personnel last night and detained at Kazi Mohammadpur police station.

When the villagers learnt of the arrest this morning, they started assembling on National Highway 28, also known as Muzaffarpur-Motihari road. They protested against the arrests and torched an effigy of local MLA Ajit Kumar.

The villagers also roughed up Motipur circle inspector Darshan Singh who was passing by and torched his car.

A team from Kanti police station arrived to check the situation but were pelted with stones by the agitating villagers. Kanti police station house officer Manju Singh and other policemen were assaulted and the cops had to beat a hasty retreat to a nearby petrol pump. The rampaging villagers then vandalised the Hindustan Petroleum station.

They also damaged the official car of Kanti block development officer (BDO) Ramji Prasad. The BDO, however, managed to escape the ire of the protesters.

The fire personnel from Muzaffarpur fire station, who came to put out the blaze on Singh’s car, were not so lucky. They were roughed up and their fire tender was set ablaze.

District magistrate (DM) Santosh Kumar Mall and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajesh Kumar rushed to the spot. Rajesh ordered a lathicharge to disperse the mob. The police also used teargas shells before resorting to firing.

Tirhut deputy inspector-general of police Bacchu Singh Meena said: “We tried to disperse the rampaging mob by resorting to lathicharge and firing teargas shells. They, however, continued to hurl stones and bricks. Therefore, we were forced to fire in the air.”

He added: “The DM and the SSP are camping at the site because of the volatile situation. Police personnel have been deployed in great numbers in front of KTPS. The blockade created by the villagers on NH-28 outside KTPS has been lifted.” No protester was available for comment.