Hospitals overwhelmed as Indian police, Honda workers battle for second day

NEW DELHI, Wednesday (AFP) - Indian police and workers of the Indian unit of Japan's Honda Motor battled for a second day on New Delhi's outskirts as hospitals said they were overwhelmed by injured, doctors and witnesses said.

The clashes were the most violent seen in years between workers and police. Gurgaon's civil administrator Sudhir Rajpal put the number of injured in the clashes at 130 but doctors at the scene said scores more were sent to hospitals in the capital.

"Gurgaon's private clinics and the (state-run) Civil Hospital can provide 200 beds but the number of (injured) turning up is too much for us to handle," said Raj Singh, chief medical officer of the private Kalyani Hospital.

"As far as we know 150 or so patients have been sent to hospitals in New Delhi," Singh told AFP from barricaded Gurgaon, home to dozens of Western plants as well as a base for call centres.

Witnesses, meanwhile, said steel-helmeted police used teargas and attacked residents, call centre employees and motorists near the site of Monday's clash.

"We were returning home when four cops pounced on us and beat up me and my wife," said a call centre operator who identified himself as Vipul, as his spouse wept.

Doctors at Gurgaon's Pushpanjali nursing clinic were treating at least two of scores of Honda workers who had been beaten up Monday by police.

"It seems they were put through metal wringers," said physician Umesh Kumar, treating the two for fractures, cuts and other injuries. "Gurgaon's medical setup is small and not prepared to handle what's going on."

Meanwhile relatives of those injured in Monday's clashes turned on police in Gurgaon, witnesses said. Two women beat policemen and an administrator with sticks saying their relatives were missing since authorities said police had arrested at least 300 workers.

Police denied the charges

"We've no record of any missing persons and anyone not accounted for has simply gone home," Police Inspector General Deepa Mehta said outside a hospital where protesters gathered for news of workers hurt in Monday's clashes. Parliament erupted in uproar Tuesday over the violence the previous day.

Opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra accused police of committing "atrocities" against the workers while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed "deep anguish" over the violence.

Television footage Monday showed bleeding workers being dragged by their feet and policemen kicking and punching men lying inert on pavements.

The workers had been seeking to submit an appeal to district officials seeking reinstatement of 30 sacked employees when the violence erupted.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil told parliament 92 workers were hurt when police baton-charged hundreds of people. Thirty-five police officers and security personnel were also injured, he said, citing preliminary figures.

The figures were far lower than the 550 people reported by the Press Trust of India to have been admitted to hospital late Monday.

Gurgaon administrator Rajpal said police retaliated to stop the workers' rampage. "This mob was going around smashing cars, showrooms and public property," Rajpal said.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupender Singh Hooda ordered a probe into what he said were "excesses on both sides."