APDR protests student 'arrest'

MALDA, June 8: The Association for Protection of Democratic Right, Malda unit, today staged a demonstration in English Bazaar town in protest against police harassment on five girl students in Jadavpur yesterday. The members of APDR criticized role of police for ‘terrorizing’ common people who try to speak against the establishment. They claimed that the five girls belonged to Matangini Mohila Samiti and a few of them took part to mobilize people in Nandigram and Singur against various issues including farm land acquisition. Ms Anwesa Sarkar, resident of Malda, was one of the five girls who were suspected women Maoist activists, according to the police and local CPI-M workers in Jadavpur. Ms Anwesa's mother, a local poet and writer, Mrs Tripti Santra has expressed unhappiness over the role of police and state run terrorism by police against social activists who write and speak criticizing state. Mrs Santra was worried about security of her daughter and other four friends in Kolkata after the matter came to limelight. Mrs Santra said: “We received phone call from the owner of the rented house, where they were lived, and the owner asked me to vacate room immediately”. n SNS