WARSAW: Police broke up a new demonstration by some 4,000 University students marching in the streets of the city today [March 9].

The police used tear gas shells and carried out an undisclosed number of arrests.

The demonstration was a follow-up to protest meetings held yesterday afternoon to demand the reinstatement of two dismissed students and cancellation of the censor’s ban on a theatrical play. Helmeted Police and plainclothes reserve militiamen used billy clubs on Friday to break up a campus demonstration at Warsaw University.

The Police charged on to the downtown campus after demonstrators shut the University’s main gates and barred the exit of seven busloads of militiamen who had attempted to disperse the students.

Today’s demonstration began with a protest meeting inside the Polytechnical School. While the meeting was going on inside the school, about 400 more students gathered outside and burned copies of the daily Zycie Warszawy, which had sharply criticised the students’ agitation.

After the meeting, the ranks of the student demonstrators swelled to three or four thousand. They started marching towards the newspaper’s office. They sang the National Anthem and chanted slogans, calling for constitutional Freedom and denouncing the Government Press.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2018