THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the fourth day in a row, the capital city turned into a battlefield on Tuesday when Youth Congress and Yuva Morcha workers clashed with the police in front of the Secretariat demanding the resignation of Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel. Over 30 Youth Congress workers, including MLAs Shafi Paramabil and K S Sabarinadan, who led the Youth Congress protests were arrested while several workers were injured when police fired teargas shells and resorted to lathicharge. The Yuva Morcha workers too were injured in police action.
All injured protesters were taken to the General Hospital. Three police personnel, including Cantonment SI A Santhosh Kumar, were also injured in the scuffle. From 11.45am, MG Road at Statue in front of the Secretariat saw a face-off between the police and the agitators for more than two hours when Youth Congress’ long march reached near the north gate.
The march began from the PSC office at Pattom where workers have been protesting in front of the office for the past two weeks against the backdoor appointments and suicide of a PSC rank holder in the district. When the workers, including women, reached near the gate, the police erected barricades. However, several workers attempted to jump over those.
The demonstration turned violent after Shafi’s speech ended and the agitators began to hurl stones and other objects at the police. But Youth Congress members later claimed they were provoked by the police.
Though the police tried to disperse the crowd using water cannons several times, the workers did not budge. Later, the police fired tear gas shells at the workers.
A few agitators collapsed in the mêlée. When activists tried to push through the police line, they were lathicharged. Some fell on the road and they were later taken to the hospital in ambulances. Meanwhile, Yuva Morcha’s march, named ‘Deepashikha Yatra’ to protest the death of the PSC rank holder, reached the south gate.As the Youth Congress’ protest was on, police stopped Yuva Morcha activists from proceeding. After the march was inaugurated by O Rajagopal, MLA, the workers were allowed to proceed to the north gate after the police arrested the Youth Congress workers.
Soon the Yuva Morcha march turned violent when they too attempted to climb over the police barricade. Some verbal duel ensued before police decided to disperse the crowd using force. BJP district president V V Rajesh reached the spot and spoke to police officers. Later, the protest march ended and police removed the agitators. The Cantonment police have registered cases against over 100 Youth Congress workers, including the two MLAs and 40 Yuva Morcha members. The city traffic police were kept on their toes as they struggled to ensure unhindered vehicular flow during the course of the agitations.