DAY-03 OF COLLEGE PROTEST

33 vehicles, 2 bikes, an ambulance vandalized; Tear gassing resorted to again
GANGTOK, 16 July: The protest against the fee-hike by college students with which the week, and incidentally the new academic session began on Monday, had multiplied into a protest against a police lathicharge at the college gates by the evening. On Tuesday, yesterday, the police showed restraint and resorted to tear-gassing the mixed crowd of students and their supporters in the evening. Today, the scale of protest grew phenomenally, as did the nature of violence. And it was mostly tear-gassing again today, but this time at more locations than Tadong [to which it was limited yesterday] and reaching up to Hospital Dara where a police vehicle had been torched by protesters.
Till yesterday, it was mostly college students and police confrontation, but today, most of the college students stayed inside the campus, having turned out “non-students” from the college premises early in the day following which police bandobast at the gate kept them in for most part of the day and their supporters out.
This did not however keep the highway free as several groups started rallying down to the college in support of the students, protesting police action against them and demanding action against the SP [East]. It is clear that rumours of a student fatality [which were proven wrong] had fuelled passions and drawn bigger crowds to the college. It is also clear that the groups knew the rumours to be false by the time they arrived here because it did not figure in their slogans.
Meanwhile, after a student delegation had agreed to meet with the State Government representatives to discuss their demands, the HRDD Minister and the Principal Secretary, it is learnt, advised the district administration not to take any action against the protesting college students down at Tadong.
The police presence around the college began thinning accordingly.
Even as this was happening, groups arriving in support of the protesting students started swelling in numbers, anger and aggression. The larger groups came down from the main town area and were joined by groups from below Tadong which had earlier taken out a procession to CRH where they were told a fatality had occurred. Their misconception was cleared and they returned protesting the lathicharge to Tadong.
The crowd swelled at Tadong and the protest grew loud and as they were allowed free movement around the area in the absence of a police cordon, they started marching up. It then collected outside the Tadong Police Outpost and started raising slogans against the SP [East] and the police action on students. The heckling was getting intense and unnerving.
The situation had become tense and the outpost had only a skeletal anti-riot team and SAP personnel led by their Commandant Tashi Wangyal at the spot. The situation collapsed when a Sikkim Police vehicle arrived with two personnel on board and was set upon by a section of the crowd. The two occupants escaped, but the vehicle was turned over. The situation had turned violent and as the vehicle was being smashed, some stones were also lobbed from the back and the order to release tear gas was issued.
The police squad and the protesters engaged in a pitched exchange of tear gas and stones and eventually the riot police pushed forward and dispersed the crowd. The police strength at the venue was clearly inadequate to clear too large an area and as the crowd dispersed, reports of arson started coming in with a parked bus set on fire at Convoy Ground.
The situation in the main town area also deteriorated into violence with even the DGP’s vehicle stoned at Hospital Dara.
Through the day, 33 vehicles were vandalised in Gangtok. Of the 33 vehicles, five were set on fire.
Speaking over the phone, District Collector [East], AK Singh, informed that 33 vehicles, two motorcycles on police duty [at Tadong], and one ambulance were damaged. 16 police personnel were also injured today, of whom five sustained head injuries.
Besides Gangtok, no reports of such damages have come from other parts of East district thus far, he added.
The district administration is on full vigil and prepared to tackle the situation, said Mr Singh, expressing hope that the law & order situation will be restored within the next 24 hours.
DIG [Range], Dr. MS Tuli, stated that after the mob turned violent and indulged in vandalism damaging government and private properties, the police administration was forced to use tear gas to disperse the crowd and bring the situation under control in Tadong.
He has appealed to the people not to take law into their hands and maintain peace in the state further adding that the police administration was fully cooperating with the people for their safety and security.
DGP Jasbir Singh, who returned today from Delhi, drove down straight to Tadong to talk to protesting students and their supporters. His vehicle was attacked on his way down at Hospital Dara. There was much chaos on the roads and it took rather indiscriminate tear-gassing to disperse the crowds and clear the roads and end the violence. By late in the evening, those who risked taking their vehicles out could drive around town but the traffic was thin. Even the army took out a march around Tadong to reinforce that it had installations here and would keep them safe.
Media-persons, who had been heckled yesterday, continued to be challenged by different groups today as well with a government cameraman roughed up and his camera smashed, another journalist assaulted, the first at Tadong and the latter at Hospital Dara, and several others told off.