Violence erupted during a protest rally against the Waqf (Amendment) Act Assam’s Cachar district, officials said on Monday. Cachar police have registered case but no arrests have been made as of yet. According to police, officials lathi charged at the protestors after some people pelted stone on police personnel. Reportedly, around 300-400 Muslim people on Sunday took out an ‘un-permitted’ protest rally against the Waqf (Amendment) Act at Berenga area in Cachar district and when the police personnel tried to stop the rally some people had started pelting stone targeti the security personnel.
The police personnel resorted lathi charge to disperse the crowd, officials said. Superintendent of Police of Cachar, Numal Mahatta said that the protest rally was taken out without obtaining prior permission. “The Model Code of Conduct is enforced in view of Panchayat polls and without prior permission they took out the protest rally. When we received the information we reached the spot and dispersed the crowd. Some of them tried to create law and order situation, but we brought the situation under control,” Numal Mahatta said.
“If anyone tries to violate the law we are ready to take stern action against them. Now the situation is under control. We have registered a case. We have deployed security forces in this area to maintain the law and order situation,” he added. Assam’s Panchayat elections will be held in 2 phases on May 2 and May 7. According to the Assam government, there are 21 Zilla Parishads, 185 Anchalik Panchayats and 2202 Gaon Panchayats in Assam currently. The votes will be counted on May 11. Total of 6981 candidates have gotten their nominations accepted by the State Election Commission.
