Stir over student leader’s death in Kolkata; agitators clash with cops

KOLKATA: Students of Aliah University fought a pitched battle with the police in the city’s Park Circus area on Saturday evening when their rally in protest against the unnatural death of fellow mate was stopped from moving past a barricade in Padmapukur area.

A police officer said around 500 protesters took out a candlelight rally from the varsity campus in Park Circus to Entally in protest against student leader Anish Khan’s death. Khan's family has alleged that a few people, donning police uniform, entered their residence at Amta in Howrah on Friday night, and forcibly took him to the terrace only to push him down.

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A section of the agitators, seeking justice for Khan, tried to move past the barricade put up by the police near Padmapukur when a scuffle broke out between the two sides. It was, however, quickly brought under control, though some of the protesters blocked a part of the road, bringing traffic to a grinding halt in the evening, the officer said.

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Adil Khan, one of the agitating students, vowed to stay put at the site near Padmapukur till all those behind the "cold-blooded murder" of Anish Khan were identified and put behind bars. The police, on its part, asserted that none of its personnel was involved in the incident. The deceased student leader’s friends claimed that he was killed for trying to build an "anti-establishment movement". The protesters also said that they would be taking out a march to Nabanna on Tuesday.

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