BATHINDA: The Punjab police mercilessly beat up women anganwari workers who tried to disturb AIDS seminar was being addressed by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here Thursday.

The civil hospital here had organised the seminar where Chief  Minister Badal and health minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla were present.

The anganwari workers started raising anti-government slogans as Badal got up to deliver his speech.

Applying a blow on the right of the speech the women police, along with their men colleagues, dragged anganwari workers out of the pavilion.

Just after the Chief Minister had left the place, policemen, including some senior officials, tried to tie the hands of protesting workers with a rope and drag them towards a police vehicle.

A woman worker was even thrown on the floor and kicked by a SAD woman activist. When mediapersons intervened, she threatened them with dire consequences. In charge, CIA, Ranjit Singh and a security officer, Sanjeev Mittal used abusive language against them. The police even prevented photojournalists from clicking shots of the police brutality.

Senior police personnel claimed that the anganwari workers roughed up the women cops who tried to prevent them from disrupting the seminar.

Meanwhile, anganwari workers laid siege to the Civil Lines police station, where Hargobind Kaur, state president of the Anganwari Workers Association, along with 10 others, was arrested.

She told that they had come there to peacefully appraise Badal of their plight

Bathinda SSP Naunihal Singh said a case under Sections 186 and 353 of the IPC had been registered against more than 10 anganwari workers and an inquiry into the incident would be conducted.