Paradip, March 7: Tension mounted at Gobindpur village under the proposed Posco steel project this afternoon with over 500 anti-Posco women activists attacking a police camp, forcing the latter to retaliate by wielding batons.

Nearly a dozen activists — all members of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS) — suffered injuries as police lathicharged to disperse the mob. Several others were also injured in the stampede that ensued following the lathicharge.

At least three of the women attempted to strip. The outfit had earlier exerted pressure tactics to carry forward the movement by using children and women as human shields.

Jagatsinghpur superintendent of police Satyabrata Bhoi said they were forced to resort to lathicharge because the mob consisting of women attacked their camp and tried to manhandle police personnel.

“Despite provocation, the police acted with utmost restraint. The women did not protest out of their own accord. Leaders of the PPSS instigated them. However, we have taken serious note of the nude protest. Cases will be registered against those who stripped and also those who provoked them to do so, as it is a cognisable offence under Indian Penal Code,” said Bhoi.

The chief of the PPSS women wing, Manorama Khatua, said the “police acted in the most ruthless manner” and that the women were only staging “peaceful protests.

“The women simply requested the cops to leave the place. All of a sudden, the police started wielding their batons,” she said.

PPSS, the organisation spearheading the agitation, justified the show of protest by women. “The government is hell-bent on rendering the people homeless and displacing them from their ancestral land. Their act is justified,” said PPSS chief Abhaya Sahu.