KOCHI: In a show of strength and endurance along the Vypeen-Munambam state highway, around 30,000 people stood holding hands on Sunday to express solidarity with the Munambam-Kadappuram residents in their “struggle for justice”. The human chain was a joint effort by the Varappuzha and Kottapuram dioceses of the Latin Catholic Church.
At the protest venue in Munambam, Kottappuram Bishop Ambrose Puthenveettil said, “The human chain organised on the Vypeen-Munambam state highway is a protest against lawlessness and injustice.”
The human chain aimed to highlight the woes of the people who have lost their revenue rights to their land under the Waqf Act. “The human chain is the result of the goodness within the hearts of people to side with those denied justice in society.
This is a chain of human love and a chain of unity,” he added. Bishop Puthenveettil became the first link in the human chain at the Munambam-Kadappuram protest venue while Varapuzha Archbishop Joseph Kalathiparambil was the first link on the Vypeen side of the chain.
The inauguration, held at Fort Vypeen, was attended by Archbishop Kalathiparambil and Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Valungal. Thousands of people from the parishes of the Kottapuram Diocese participated in the chain. After the human chain, meetings were held at various parishes in Vypeen on the Munambam-Kadappuram land issue.
Meanwhile, the relay hunger strike by the Munambam-Kadappuram residents completed 85 days on Sunday.