The students after their arrest on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Aug. 28: A skirmish in a Guwahati school spilled outside the campus and ended in a police outpost after nearly 150 students clashed with the men in khaki to “rescue” their classmates who were detained for allegedly assaulting the headmaster and another teacher.

Trouble began at Lalchand Onkarmall Goenka Hindi High School this morning when a group of students beat up headmaster P.C. Biswas and another teacher, Joy Kumar Keot.

While Biswas received a serious eye injury, Keot escaped.

Both filed a complaint at Fancy Bazar police outpost.

On receiving the complaint, police investigated the matter and detained six students for questioning.

As the police took the students to Fancy Bazar outpost, around 150 students followed the police vehicle and laid siege to the outpost around 11am, demanding that their friends be released.

“Soon, the students turned unruly and began hurling stones and whatever they could lay their hands on at the policemen,” said a police official at the outpost.

Four police personnel — constables Sanat Mudoi, Kanak Das, Ananda Das and sub-inspector Rubul Islam — were injured in the stone shower.

“As the rampaging students were in no mood to relent, we were left with no other option but to use mild force to disperse them and bring the situation under control,” the police source said.

Six students, Anil Das, Mohammad Gulab, Rahul Rao, Mukesh Shah, Rahul Chouhan and Mohammad Zakir, sustained minor injuries.

Senior superintendent of police (city) P.C. Saloi, additional superintendent of police (headquarters) Sudhakar Singh and executive magistrate Bibekananda Choudhury rushed to the outpost on being informed about the clash.

The police arrested 14 students, including the six who were picked up for assaulting the teachers, and released them later on bail.

“All the students were handed over to their guardians,” the police source said.

Headmaster Biswas alleged that he was assaulted by the students after they were instigated by a section of teachers.

“There is a row between the managing committee of the school and a section of teachers and today’s incident is a fallout of that. Biswas and Keot were allegedly attacked by students who accused them of siding with the management. The students seem to have been instigated by some teachers,” the police source added.

The school had hit the headlines early this month after a few teachers took classes on the pavement to protest the management’s decision to close the school.

A section of teachers, in fact, have been on collision course with the managing committee since May when the panel suspended then headmaster S.M. Sharma and appointed Biswas as the new head.

A little distance from the school, students of Pragjyotish College staged a huge demonstration after a teacher allegedly slapped B.Com second year student.

The college was closed at 1.30pm to prevent further trouble.