AAP office attack: Hindu Rakshak Dal leader Bhupendra Tomar held

Bhupendra Tomar alias Pinky Chaudhary, the national convenor of the Hindu Raksha Dal, accused of leading the mob attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) office in this Uttar Pradesh town, bordering the national capital, surrendered to police.

Tomar is believed to have led the protests and vandalisation at the AAP office in Kaushambi in Ghaziabad Wednesday. He surrendered at the Indirapuram police station.

"We are against the statement made by Prashant Bhushan (on army deployment in the Kashmir Valley), and will not tolerate such statements," Tomar told IANS.

"I have committed no crime. The police came to my party office and I surrendered," he told reporters at the police station.

A group of 30-40 people attacked the AAP office in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh and vandalised property today in a reprisal for Aam Aadmi Party leader Prashant Bhushan's statement on holding a referendum on keeping the army in Jammu and Kashmir.

A screengrab from the CCTV footage at the AAP office.

CNN-IBN reported that around 40 persons carrying flags came to the AAP office in Kaushambi in Uttar Pradesh and threw stones at the office while shouting slogans. The protest lasted almost 15 to 20 minutes and property outside the office was damaged as the AAP volunteers in the office had locked themselves in the building.

Uttar Pradesh police officials said that they had rushed additional forces there and were in the process of examining CCTV footage to identify those who were involved in vandalism.

They said no one was injured in the attack. SSP Dharmendra Singh said, "We have identified some people. There were some residents of Ghaziabad and the numbers of their cars have been noted. Action against them will be initiated soon."

He said there was no security at the party office but policemen have now been deployed there and at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence which is just a kilometre away. He said they will again take up the issue of security with Kejriwal and try to convince him about that.

Earlier, Kejriwal had turned down the security offered to him by Ghaziabad and Delhi Police.

Kejriwal came out strongly against the attack on the party's Kaushambi office saying the attackers can kill him if that solves the Kashmir issue. He said, "If they think by killing me or Prashant Bhushan, the Kashmir issue will get resolved, then they should tell me the place and date when they want to kill me and I'll go."

The group involved in the attack reportedly identified themselves as the Hindu Raksha Dal, and said they had attacked the office on account of Bhushan's statements. "We attacked AAP's office because of Prashant Bhushan's remarks on Kashmir," NDTV quoted a senior functionary of the group as saying.

The Hindu Raksha Dal activists broke flower pots kept outside AAP's office and tore party posters. Some glass doors were also smashed in the attack.

"We today staged a protest against AAP's stand on Kashmir. AAP's leader Prashant Bhushan's remark on Kashmir is very sad for Hindus due to which we have staged protest outside party office," said Pinky Choudhary, national convenor, Hindu Raksha Dal.