32 people hurt during KMSS road blockades

KMSS activists blocking the road at Gorchuk near here turned violent and clashed with the police. The police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the activists from the road near Gorchuk in which 18 protestors and three policewomen were injured, the sources said.

In another incident at Kohora near the Kaziranga National Park on National Highway-37, 10 policemen and a magistrate on duty were injured when KMSS activists clashed with them, they said.

The police first resorted to lathicharge and then fired in the air to disperse the KMSS activists, the sources said.

Golaghat district superintendent of police Rafiul Alam Laskar told PTI that the police had to resort to firing as a last resort after the protestors refused to clear the road leading to upper Assam and Nagaland.

The protestors subsequently left and the road was cleared for traffic.

The injured have been admitted to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital and the Golaghat civil hospital.

The KMSS activists staged the road blockade to protest the construction of big dams on river Brahmaputra and the lower Subansiri hydel project of the NHPC in Gerukamukh in Lakhimpur district.