Chaos gripped the capital city with scores of Youth Congress (YC) workers laying siege to the Secretariat on Wednesday.
The YC protest threw life out of gear in the city for the better part of the day. The Secretariat locality remained a conflict zone for hours, forcing the police to divert traffic. Motorists and two-wheeler riders had to take long detours to reach their destinations.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan led the Youth Congress march that converged on the Secretariat locality at around 12.30 p.m.
En route, the activists vandalised billboards announcing the culmination of the Navakerala Sadas in Thiruvananthapuram on December 23.
Youth Congress State president Rahul Mamkootathil and Shafi Parambil, MLA, placed themselves at the vanguard of the protesters.
The YC activists raised slogans condemning alleged police high-handedness against opposition activists staging roadside black flag demonstrations at Mr. Vijayan’s motorcade.
Youth Congress activists rushed the police contingent guarding the Secretariat’s iconic northern gate, a storied venue for political protests, fights for rights and high-profile expressions of dissent.
They scrambled atop the iron barricade blocking the Secretariat’s north gate entrance and set up Youth Congress flags.
Some attempted to scale the Secretariat’s perimeter fence, and the police pushed them back repeatedly.
The demonstrators accused the police of manhandling protestors. They singled out an officer for allegedly ripping up the dress of a woman activist.
Youth Congress workers repeatedly resisted police efforts to arrest and remove them from the spot on police buses. They smashed the windowpane of a police vehicle in the melee.
Mr. Mamkootathil claimed that he sustained a “lathi blow” on his head. He sat on the road and refused to be evacuated by ambulance to the nearby General Hospital.
Inaugurating the siege, Mr. Satheesan singled out Mr Vijayan for criticism. He said the Chief Minister’s abetment of violence against opposition black flag demonstrators smacked of sadism and delinquency.
Mr. Satheesan demanded that the police bring the Chief Minister’s security detail to book for unleashing wanton violence against KSU workers in Alappuzha last week.
Mr. Satheesan accused the police of brutalising YC workers while giving SFI workers demonstrating against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan the kid-glove treatment.
Later, Mr. Satheesan returned to the spot and led YC workers in an orderly file to the nearby District Congress Committee (DCC) office.
He stood in front of the DCC office gate to prevent the police from entering the party office to arrest YC workers suspected of destroying public property.
