THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The secretariat march organized by the Youth Congress culminated in a pitched street fight between its members and police as the state capital virtually turned into a combat zone. Several policemen and Youth Congress workers sustained injuries in the violence that erupted during the march that was organized in protest against the attack on KSU and YC workers, who had raised opposition to the Nava Kerala program.
The march was led by senior Congress leaders including Opposition Leader V D Satheesan. Following the speech of the senior Congress leaders, the police tried to disperse the protestors. As they did not pay heed to the cops, the police used water cannons on them. Some of the protestors, including women, tried to trespass into the Secretariat compound.
The scenario turned worse when the police began arresting the protestors. The irate Youth Congress workers tried to block the police vehicles in which the detained protestors were taken away. They damaged the glasses of a police bus and vandalized a few police shields. The cops resorted to lathi charges in which several YC leaders, including state president Rahul Mamkoottathil, were injured.
The protest reached its crescendo when the cops allegedly manhandled some of the women protestors. Those women were allegedly poked with lathis, which further infuriated the agitators. The protestors, meanwhile, waylaid the police vehicles and forcefully released the detainees.
The second episode of the violence unfurled in front of the DCC office when the cops tried to barge in after the YC members allegedly released their compatriots from the police bus. The cops alleged that the men, who orchestrated the act, were hiding in the party office and they wanted to enter inside to apprehend them.
Satheesan and other senior leaders rushed to the office and announced that the cops wouldn't be let in.
The violence unfurled in the state capital on the eve of the Navakerala journey set to enter the district on Thursday.