The Hindu : National : Shiv Sena workers, Raj supporters clash

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Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006
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Shiv Sena workers, Raj supporters clash

— Photo: PTI

Police try to pacify cadres of Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena after a clash in Central Mumbai on Thursday. — Photo: PTI

MUMBAI: Workers of the Shiv Sena fought pitched battles on Tuesday night with activists of the newly formed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by the former Shiv Sena leader, Raj Thackeray, in the heart of the city, leaving four people, including a police official, injured.

Police baton charged the groups and fired two teargas shells to disperse them outside the Sena Bhavan and in the vicinity of the MNS headquarters at Dadar in central Mumbai, police sources said.

Trouble erupted in the afternoon after some MNS workers allegedly tore down a poster of Sena chief Bal Thackeray put up outside the SIES College. The Shiv Sena workers retaliated by bringing down a poster of Raj Thackeray near the Sena Bhavan.

The groups gathered in the square outside the Bhavan immediately and indulged in stone-pelting.

A police official was injured by a stone.

As stone-pelting continued, the police lobbed two teargas shells.

The normal situation was restored following police action and appearance of Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray and his cousin Raj Thackeray on the spot, sources said. Uddhav appealed to Sena workers to go back home. ``The police will take necessary action. This is happening because many people are joining us from MNS. The defections have started and that is why they are resorting to such actions," he said. — PTI

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