Deocha-Pachami coal mine project protesters ‘beaten up’

A group of around 35 members of the Left-leaning People’s Forum Against Politics of Hatred, including a few artists and cultural activists opposed to the Deocha-Pachami coal mine project, were allegedly beaten up and driven away from a hotel in Santiniketan on Saturday.

The group had reached Bolpur on Friday and was supposed to march towards Deocha-Pachami where the forum was scheduled to meet villagers in the project area on February 21.

A protest rally organised by the forum in Bolpur on Friday evening was stopped by the police for not having necessary permission.

On Saturday morning, the forum members said, a group of armed youths led by Trinamul leader Babu Das came to the hotel where the activists were staying and asked them to leave the place.