Daily-wagers seeking regularisation baton-charged in Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir police here on Monday used batons and water cannons to disperse government daily-wagers, agitating for their regularisation, as they marched towards Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed's official residence.

Scores of daily-wagers assembled in the Sher-e-Kashmir Municipal Park here and took out a protest march.

As the employees moved towards the high security Gupkar Road residence of Sayeed, some two km from the protest venue, a large contingent of police intercepted them.

The protestors, however, continued marching on prompting the police to use batons and water cannons spraying coloured water to disperse them.

"The state government is adopting cavalier attitude towards our issues. Most of us have been working for years and still we have not been regularised," said one of the protestors.

Employees Joint Action Committee president Abdul Qayoom Wani, who was leading the march, was detained by police along with around a dozen other protestors.

The protest and police action created panic in the adjacent markets briefly, but the situation returned to normal after a while.