Police beating protesters after dismissed workers blocked a highway and later attacked a police squad escorting them, in Gurgaon, Haryana.

NEW DELHI/GURGAON: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed “anguish” yesterday after hundreds of workers at a Japanese automobile factory were reported injured during a brutal clash with riot police.

For three long hours over two phases, there was a bloody orgy of violence captured live on television channels as policemen mercilessly thrashed workers, apparently after coming under attack from some of the protestors, who in turn fought back leading to more clashes on the streets.

Television networks showed live the beating of cowering workers outside their factory by swarms of riot policemen in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon, where several multinational companies have set up manufacturing bases. “The prime minister has asked for information and expressed his deep anguish,” said Singh’s spokesman Sanjaya Barua. “He has also asked for action against those who are guilty,” Barua said.

Television reporters at the cordoned-off site said Gurgaon hospitals were packed with bleeding workers from the Indian subsidiary of Japanese car-maker Honda. Several privately-run television stations said an estimated 700 workers were injured, some seriously.

The incident reportedly erupted after workers in a show of solidarity with some 30 sacked colleagues violated a police restriction on processions and tried to block a highway and then attacked a small police contingent.

An assault on a senior officer prompted the police to call in reinforcements, leading to the beating of hundreds of people, many of them workers of Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd, the reports said.

Minutes later battalions of riot policemen carrying automatic weapons and wooden staves powered the mob into a public park and beat them, footage broadcast on television networks Aaj Tak, Star News and NDTV showed. Bleeding workers were shown being dragged by their feet and policemen kicked and punched men lying inert on the pavement.

“It was a brutal attack by the police,” said D L Sachdev, secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (Aituc) as scores of workers lay bleeding on the streets of this industrial township bordering New Delhi. Many suffered serious head injuries and wept after policemen belaboured the workers with bamboos.

The number of injured was so high that local hospitals ran out of space and turned away many victims. Many workers took refuge in the homes of local residents, pleading for water and medical attention.

The first round of violence lasted some 90 minutes, and after a brief lull more clashes took place near the government secretariat. A weeping and badly injured worker told reporters: “We were demonstrating peacefully for our rights, but all of a sudden the deputy commissioner himself led a baton charge against us. This has never happened here.”

Several workers injured lost consciousness and other employees tried to revive them. Angry workers then hit back with sticks and other brickbats, setting fire to police and government vehicles. Several policemen were assaulted with canes and sticks, and many of them suffered injuries in the head. One policeman folded his hands and begged to be forgiven as some 30 workers assaulted him with bamboos.

Earlier, traffic was hit on the busy Delhi-Gurgaon highway as workers attacked shops and buildings. The police claimed that Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits the gathering of five or more people, had been violated.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi also condemned the incident, demanding the guilty police officers be punished. “Gandhi has demanded action against the guilty in the violence in which hundreds of people have been injured,” a senior party figure said.

The chief minister of Haryana state, which includes Gurgaon, Bhupender Singh Hooda promised an investigation into the police action. “I have ordered an independent enquiry as no one has the right to take the law in their hands,” a visibly-troubled Hooda told television networks. “I have seen the (TV) footages and there has been been violence, open violence. My government’s policy is to look after the welfare of the workers but at the same time we also have to maintain law and order,” the chief minister said.

Senior Marxist leader Gurudas Dasgupta, who was also manhandled at the site, accused police of using excessive force. “What happened was brutal action, naked violation of human rights which left a very large number of people seriously injured and hundreds more arrested,” said Dasgupta.

“It seems the police in Gurgaon are acting as watch-dogs of these private corporates,” the Marxist leader said, warning the issue would come up for debate when Indian parliament resumes its monsoon session today. Dasgupta’s Communist Party of India (Marxist) is a key ally of India’s Congress party-led coalition government. Said former defence minister George Fernandes: “I have never seen this kind of barbarism against employees fighting for a just cause.”