AAP protests over Kejriwal’s arrest in Punjab and Haryana

Chandigarh: 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.