AAP protests Kejriwal's arrest in Punjab, Haryana; water cannons, lathicharge against protestors

AAP staged protests in Punjab and Haryana on Friday over Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest with police using water cannons and lathis when protestors tried to march to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini's residence in Kurukshetra.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) protestors also tried to march towards the Punjab BJP office in Chandigarh from adjoining Mohali and police used water cannons to stop them.

Protestors raised slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the saffron party was against the ''growing popularity'' of Kejriwal.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday night in an excise policy-linked money laundering case in Delhi.

Following the AAP leader's arrest by the central agency, the party had given a nationwide call for protest against the BJP.

In Haryana's Kurukshetra, AAP workers held a demonstration near the residence of Chief Minister Saini. As the protestors marched towards Saini's residence and breached the barricades set up there, police lathicharged them and used water cannons to stop them.

AAP leaders said the party's state unit chief Sushil Gupta, state unit senior vice president Anurag Dhanda and several party workers sustained injuries during the protest. In Punjab's Mohali, police used water cannons to stop AAP workers who tried to enter Chandigarh in a bid to march towards the Punjab BJP office there.

AAP workers, present at the protest site, said some of them received injuries due to the police action.

As Chandigarh Police tried to disperse the protesters from the site, Punjab Ministers Harpal Singh Cheema, Aman Arora, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and several AAP workers were briefly detained.

Sukhjinder Singh, an AAP worker from Tarn Taran district, said he had sustained an injury in his left eye.

''When we tried to enter Chandigarh, the police there stopped us at the barricades which had been set up. They used water cannons and I sustained injury in my left eye. I also sustained bruises on my arms as police prevented us from marching ahead,'' he said.

Punjab Minister Aman Arora dubbed Kejriwal's arrest as the ''murder of democracy''. BJP will have to face a backlash from the country's people for this, Arora told PTI.

He said AAP workers wanted to move towards the Punjab BJP office in Chandigarh when water cannons were used against them and they were stopped.

The AAP workers, in the presence of some Punjab ministers, staged a demonstration on the Mohali-Chandigarh border.

In a post on X, AAP Haryana chief Sushil Gupta said, ''At the behest of BJP, Haryana Police has carried out a brutal lathicharge on workers of Aam Aadmi Party who were protesting peacefully in Kurukshetra. Hundreds of workers, including me, have been badly injured in this lathicharge.'' Party leader Anurag Dhanda has suffered an injury to his left ear, AAP leaders said, adding that many had to be given medical attention.

In Chandigarh, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema alleged that opposition leaders are being arrested to silence their voice.

''Kejriwal talked about giving good education to children, providing good health facilities to citizens, eliminating corruption. That is why BJP targeted him. We are Kejriwal's soldiers and we stand solidly behind him.

''An undeclared emergency has been imposed in the country,'' Cheema said.

''The ruling BJP does not want that opposition leaders should even campaign and contest the Lok Sabha election,'' he said.

Punjab ministers Anmol Gagan Maan and Chetan Singh Jouramajra slammed the central government over Kejriwal's arrest, saying it was scared of his growing popularity and therefore wanted to stop the ''good works'' done by his Delhi government.

Speaking to reporters, Jouramajra said, ''What Kejriwal is doing for Delhi and Punjab, the BJP by arresting him wants to stop him from replicating this good work in other states.'' ''There is anger among people of Punjab and the rest of the country. If they arrest one Kejriwal, there will be lakhs of Kejriwals on roads who will raise their voice,'' he said.

Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann slammed Kejriwal's arrest, saying the Centre can put him in a prison but ''cannot imprison his thinking''.

Mann said the AAP will stand like a rock behind Kejriwal.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)