A prayer meeting organised in memory of Anis Khan turned into a protest march and took a violent turn when the rally reached Amta police station on Thursday.

The agitators broke into a scuffle with police and stones were allegedly hurled at them from the rally.

On Thursday afternoon, villagers and the family came together at the local Idgah — a courtyard where Muslims gather to offer prayer during Id — to pray for Anis. Kasem Siddiqui, a cleric from Furfura Sharif, presided over the programme and vowed to take the fight to Nabanna in case the culprits are not brought to justice.

At the end of the meeting, Kasem asked people to march towards the Amta police station. He handheld Anis’s father Salem Khan and brother Sabir Khan as villagers and protesters marched demanding justice for the allegedly murdered student leader.

When the congregation of more than 300 people reached the Amta police station, stones and bricks flew in from the rear end, forcing Siddiqui and Salem to urge the protesters to maintain peace.

However, when the rally had started from the village, it was repeatedly announced that the participants should maintain peace and denounce aggression. Hundreds of men carrying hand-made posters swearing solidarity to Anis and demanding justice for him had silently joined the march.

The incident in front of the police station prompted villagers and Anis’ father to put the blame on the Trinamul Congress.

“The ones who threw stones aren’t residents of our village. They were planted by the Trinamul to disrupt our protest,” a villager said.

The rallyists also engaged in a scuffle with police personnel and tried to overthrow the barricades placed in front of the police station. Once the brawl mellowed down six people — including Salem, Sabir and Kasem — went inside the police station to meet officers present there.

“I’ve kept my demand of arresting the culprits and of a CBI inquiry,” Salem said after emerging from the police station. He added that the pradhan of the local panchayat, the officer in-charge of the Amta police station, the local MLA and the superintendent of police of Howrah (rural) should be booked for the “murder” of his son.

On being asked to react to the high court’s order to the SIT to continue its investigation, Salem lost his cool. “Why are you in a hurry? I’ve not received any paper from the court yet,” Salem said. Later he added that he would stick to the demand of a CBI inquiry and move a higher court if necessary. “If needed, I’ll go to Nabanna in the future,” he added to cheers from the agitators.

Sabir, however, said the court’s directions need to be followed, quickly adding that the family would speak to their lawyers and act accordingly. “We might go to the Supreme Court,” he said.

The family had also demanded that the grave of Anis be secured and put under CCTV surveillance. Later in the evening, a team of policemen met Sabir and started work to install CCTV cameras around the grave. A senior police officer also shared his contact number with Sabir so that the latter could contact him in case of emergency.

“We had expressed our sense of insecurity to the police officers. It feels good that they have acted quickly,” Sabir told journalists.

Even as the family weighed the implication of Thursday’s order and measures taken by the police, students’ wing of Congress and the state leadership of SFI and DYFI participated in separate demonstrations in front of the Amta police station. Left-backed students unions, including the SFI, have also called for a country-wide protest on Friday, including a march to the headquarters of Bengal police — Bhawani Bhavan — on Friday.