Panchkula, June 28 -- Hours after the former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda visited the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) aspirants protest site in Sector 5, Panchkula on Friday, district police allegedly detained protesting candidates in a late-night operation and kept them in custody overnight. The aspirants, who have been protesting since December 18, last year, against HPSC, alleged that around 11.30 pm on Friday, a heavy police force reached the protest site while they were asleep, confiscated their mobile phones and took them to the police station. They claimed the action came despite administrative officials earlier assuring them that their demands would be heard. Around half a dozen women, including Ramandeep Kaur, Suman Prajapati and Pallavi Jangra, were on an indefinite hunger strike. Suman said she had been fasting for the past 10 days and was compelled and shifted to a hospital before the police action. She alleged that after being discharged on Saturday, she was dropped on a roadside far from the protest venue. She later returned to the site to collect her belongings. Sector-5 SHO Rupesh Kumar said the protesters no longer had permission to continue the agitation and had been served notice. He added that those on hunger strike were hospitalised due to their deteriorating health, while the others were detained for allegedly disturbing law and order before being released following a medical examination on Saturday. The agitation has drawn support from several political leaders, including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Randeep Surjewala and Digvijay Chautala. The protesters are demanding the abolition of the 35% minimum cut-off in the Subject Knowledge Test (SKT), a Haryana-centric syllabus with greater weightage for state general knowledge, restructuring of the Haryana Public Service Commission, a fixed annual recruitment calendar, priority for local candidates and a transparent probe into alleged recruitment irregularities....