KOCHI: Four police officers and six Youth Congress workers were injured after a march taken out by KSU-Youth Congress workers to the Kalamassery police station turned violent on Tuesday.
Youth Congress state president Shafi Parambil, MLA, and Ernakulam DCC president Mohammed Shiyas, staged a sit-in protest at the Kalamassery police station demanding medical treatment to the injured workers as the police brutally lathicharged the protesters without any provocation.
Protesters Paul, Anson, Arjun, Amar, Unnikrishnan, and Jithin suffered injuries when the police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the protesters. The march was organised to protest against police atrocities on YC agitators across the state. The injured were admitted to the Government Medical College Hospital in Kalamassery.
The incident occurred around 1 pm when the protesters took out a march to the office of the Kalamassery circle inspector. The police blocked the march 1km ahead of the station. According to the police, the protesters turned violent without any provocation, and some of them started pelting stones at policemen, forcing them to resort to lathicharge. Four police officers, Kannan, Sanooj, Sunil, and Miljit Kumar, were injured and admitted to a private hospital in Kalamassery.
Shafi, who inaugurated the march and left the venue returned to the police station after hearing that police attacked the workers. The police allegedly wielded lathi at the leaders including Shafi who protested in front of the station. Following this, the leaders staged a sit-in in front of the police station demanding action against the officers who assaulted protesters.
“One of our activists suffered a fracture on his hand in the lathicharge. However, the police denied him medical treatment. They are beating up our workers without any provocation to suppress the protest against the state government. Our activists did not hurl stones at the officers or their vehicles,” said Shafi.DCC president Mohammed Riyas alleged that the police wielded lathi even against people’s representatives. “The lathi used to beat Shafi broke into two pieces,” he added.
Later, Hibi Eden, MP, T J Vinodh, MLA, and Uma Thomas, MLA, arrived at the police station and held talks with the police officers. Meanwhile, Shafi lodged a petition before Speaker A N Shamseer demanding action against the police officers. The sit-in protest ended following the assurance of the Speaker and ACP Thrikkakara that action would be taken against the police officers.