Dozens of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers were on Monday taken into preventive custody as police resorted to lathicharge and used coloured water to foil their march towards Civil Secretariat, the seat of the Jammu and Kashmir government.

Several thousand SSA teachers from different parts of the state, including Jammu, had assembled at Partap Park near in support of their demands which included the release of their about four-month salary.

Raising slogans in favour of their demands, the teachers started their march towards the secretariat whenlarge number of police personnel swung into action.

However, when the teachers insisted that they should be allowed to move towards the secretariat, police resorted to lathicharge and also used coloured water to disperse them.

Traffic on the Residency road between Regal chowk to Gantaghar was disrupted due to clashes. Dozens of SSA teachers were later taken into preventive custody and lodged in police station Kothibagh.

''We are demanding justice but are being thrashed,'' the SSA teachers alleged.

''Despite repeated assurances by the government, our demands were not met so far, forcing us to take to streets,'' they said