MADURAI: The pro-jallikattu protest at Alanganallur turned violent as the rural police resorted to severe lathicharge to disperse the crowd after some of the protesters involved in stone-pelting in the district.
The situation became critical when the police started to forcibly remove about 400 protesters. More than ten persons including police personnel were injured in the violence. The police arrested 72 protesters.
Earlier, members of the Jallikattu organising committee conducted a meeting with many villagers, including some of the protesters, at the vaadi vaasal (entry point of the bulls into the Jallikattu arena) in the morning.
Thanking the students and youths for their contribution and talking to media persons, the members said that they had decided to give up the protest and conduct the bull-taming sport on February 1.
The committee members, along with a few villagers, went to Kettu Kadai, the protest spot, and urged the protesters including their family members to call off the protest. But the protesters refused to relent. When someone tried to evict women protesters forcibly, chappals were thrown in response.
At this point, the police started moving out the protestors and initially resorted to a minor lathicharge when some of them resisted. To resist the police action, the protesters began to Vande Mataram and the National Anthem. The police, in turn, displayed a poster warning that the protest was an unlawful assembly.
This was met with stone pelting by the protestors, especially the local villagers, which forced the police personnel to retreat.