On January 8, around 2,000 workers in the Japanese zone of Neemrana industrial area participated in a rally as part of the All-India workers’ general strike called by the central trade unions. “When the workers’ rally reached the Daikin company gate around 2 p.m. and tried to raise the union’s flag, they were brutally attacked by around 150 police personnel. The police lathicharged workers and also fired rubber bullets, lobbed tear gas shells and water cannons against men and women workers, injuring 40 people, with many requiring hospitalisation for fractures and head injuries. The injured workers included men and women, permanent and contract employees of different companies, but the president of the Daikin Air Conditioning Mazdoor Union, Rukumudeen, and general-secretary Daulat Ram, were particularly targeted. Fourteen workers employed by air-conditioning manufacturer Daikin have also been arrested in midnight raids on their homes and slapped with frame-up attempted murder charges. Moreover, police are threatening to arrest hundreds more on trumped-up charges arising from an unprovoked police attack on a workers’ rally outside a Daikin factory in Neemrana, Rajasthan on January 8, the first day of last week’s 48-hour all-India general strike. Police have listed a further 17 workers by name and 700 “unnamed” workers in a charge-sheet that accuses them of attempted murder, rioting and numerous other grave crimes.