DHAKA, Feb 2: Fifty people, including 10 policemen, were injured in a clash between police and stranded Pakistanis in the city’s Mohammadpur locality on Thursday. Leaders of the stranded Pakistanis’ General Repatriation Committee claimed that the police had baton-charged and lobbed teargas canisters on their procession without any provocation. The police also picked up 10 persons, they said.

According to witnesses, the committee brought out a procession of several hundred people from the Geneva Camp at Mohammadpur to join a scheduled programme to lay siege to the Pakistan high commission in Dhaka.

The committee announced that it would lay siege to the Pakistan High Commission and submit a memorandum containing its demands, which include the repatriation of stranded Pakistanis and resumption of relief and resignation or removal of the Pakistan High Commissioner.

“As we marched towards the high commission, the police intercepted us at Gazhnavi Road near the Dhaka Residential Model School and College,” said Shaukat Ali, secretary of the committee. “They charged batons indiscriminately and also lobbed more than 50 teargas canisters.”

The stranded Pakistanis hit back, hurling brickbats and stones at the law enforcement gencies.

Twelve of the injured were admitted to Suhrawardi Hospital and 15 to Fuwad-al-Khatib Hospital at Kalyanpur. The rest needed first aid.

“The police also stormed our camp and charged batons on women and children,” alleged Harun-ur-Rashid, information and publication secretary of the committee.