THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the second time in a week, grenades and teargas shells of the police marred the sacred grounds of the oldest alma mater in the capital city, University College, on Wednesday, courtesy the law-defying students of the college.The police were forced to unleash an attack inside the college campus after the SFI activists who went on a rampage on the city roads sought shelter inside the campus and started to attack the police using stones and petrol bombs from behind the walls.The might of the City Police force was put to test on the day as they had to counter the back-to-back agitations by the student and youth wings of different Left-aligned political parties, including RSP, CPI and CPM.All of them had hit the streets for the same reason; to protest against the lackadaisical attitude adopted by the UDF Government in the issue of seat allotments in self-financing colleges. And, absolute pandemonium prevailed in the city for hours following the violent clashes that broke out between the police and agitators. It was the RYF and Progressive Students’ Union of RSP that hit the streets first with their march to Secretariat in the morning. The police blocked them in front of the Secretariat using barricades and managed to disperse them after a minor tiff.Then came the AIYF activists, who took out their march to the State Legislative Assembly. The police had to adopt intense measures like lathi-charge, water cannon, teargas and grenades to disperse the agitators, who were not willing to retreat. As many as 10 AIYF activists and 10 policemen were injured in the clash. The third and the final duel, between the police and SFI-DYFI activists, turned out to be the longest and most violent, with the students using dangerous explosives such as petrol bombs, in addition to the usual stones, to attack the police. Their march to Secretariat was blocked by the police on the way and they were guided back to University College. But upon reaching the college, the students started pelting stones at the police and even the pedestrians. The SFI leaders were not ready to stop their attack even after Thiruvananthapuram Range IG Padmakumar and City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham reached the college and urged them to remain calm. DYFI leaders P Sreeramakrishnan, T V Rajesh and M Swaraj were also present at Palayam when the clashes were going on. Finally, the duel ended when MLA V Sivankutty and CPM district secretary Kadakampally Surendran arrived and held talks with the youth leaders and police.In the evening, activists of DYFI and Democratic Women’s Association took out a protest march to the Secretariat in protest against the alleged police atrocities towards the students. Both sides suffered injuries in the clashes, with over 20 youths and 15 policemen taken to hospitals. The injured policemen included Deputy Commissioner Thomas Jolly Cherian and Additional Sub-Inspector Rajendran. The protests also threw the vehicular traffic on the city roads haywire for over two hours. The police had imposed traffic regulations on the road anticipating violence during the protest marches. Vehicles were restricted from entering the roads from LMS to Palayam and also from PMG to Palayam via the State Legislative Assembly Complex. However, this caused all the byroads near the MG Road to choke with vehicles. The SFI state leadership has called for a statewide education strike on Thursday in protest against the attack on its activists.
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