Patna, July 13 (IANS) The Patna Police initiated a brutal lathi-charge on the protesting BJP leaders at Dak Bungalow Chowk on Thursday in which more than two dozen leaders, including MPs and MLAs sustained injuries.

The BJP leaders were participating in a pre scheduled protest march on the issues like domicile policy of teachers recruitment, resignation demand of Tejashwi Yadav, no FIR in Aguwani Ghat Khagaria bridge collapse, etc.

As per the route, they marched from historic Gandhi Maidan to Vidhan Sabha and when they reached Dak Bunglow Chowk, a large number of police force deployed there did not allow them to go further towards the Income Tax roundabout, Veerchand Patel Path and Vidhan Sabha.

Patna Police then initiated a lathi-charge on the protesters that included Maharajganj MP Janardan Singh Sigriwal, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, and women leaders.

"I was informing the cops that I am an MP, but they did not listen and brutally launched an assault on me and others.

"We were doing a peaceful protest from Gandhi Maidan to Vidhan Sabha, but the Nitish Kumar government intentionally beat us," Sigriwal said.

Nikhil Anand, the national general secretary, was another leader, who was beaten by the police.

He said: "It is a non democratic act of Nitish Kumar government. Brutal assault like this cannot be justified. We are not terrorists. We were just doing a protest march."

A large number of women leaders like Nivedita Singh, Gunjan Singh were also injured in this police action. They were admitted to various hospitals.