Ahmedabad, Feb 18 (IANS): A three-day "Beti Bachao Yatra" by the Congress party in Gujarat to highlight the "gang-rape" in Kutch involving four local BJP leaders met with resistance on Saturday, when members of a new outfit "Kutch Asmita Manch" clashed.

The opposition party launched this 550-km rally to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the issue of Naliya gangrape case in which four BJP leaders were allegedly involved. The rally was expected to end on Monday in Gandhinagar, when the assembly's budget session starts.

The Kutch Asmita Manch members gathered in various towns from where the Congress march was scheduled to pass, including Naliya, Anjar and Gandhidham, waving black flags.

They were condemning a recent statement by Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela, who equated Kutch with Bangkok, after names of some local BJP men appeared in an FIR.

The Manch activists and the Congress workers came to blows following an altercation. Reports of skirmishes and mild lathicharge by police to control members of the Manch as well as the Congress workers also came in from Gandhidham.

According to the FIR filed by the 24-year-old victim with Kutch police in early January, she had been raped by 10 persons on different occasions. She alleged that the accused were running a sex racket in the Kutch district and forced victims to have sex with numerous persons after blackmailing them by making a video of their immoral act.