A march taken out by Youth Congress activists to the Thrissur Collectorate on Thursday demanding withdrawal of the controversial K-Rail project turned violent. The protest was also against the police attack on Congress MPs in Delhi.
The Youth Congress activists who managed to overcome the strong police cover laid K-Rail survey stones on the Collectorate premises as a symbolic protest. The activists clashed with the police when the latter attempted to remove the stones.
The Collectorate witnessed untoward scenes for more than an hour when the police resorted to lathi-charge and used water cannon against the agitating Youth Congress activists.
The Youth Congress workers, led by district president O.J. Janeesh, took out the procession from the District Congress Committee (DCC) office to the Collectorate. However, the police stopped them near the Collectorate. DCC president Jose Vallur inaugurated the dharna.
As the police stopped the workers, some of them jumped across the compound wall and entered the Collectorate premises in order to lay the stones. A tense situation prevailed when the protesting workers clashed with the police who tried to remove the stones. Several activists and police personnel were injured in the melee. The police have registered cases against nearly 100 Congress activists.
The workers protested again when the police took the injured activists in their vehicle to the police station without admitting them to hospital. They then laid a siege to the Town West police station. The protest was later dispersed after the police shifted the injured activists to hospital.
Meanwhile, the police lathi-charged Congress workers who took out a march in the evening in protest against the attack on MPs in Delhi. Many Congress workers were reportedly injured in the incident.
