ABVP march turns violent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nine activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) sustained injuries in police action after a march taken out by the ABVP to the Secretariat on Wednesday turned violent. The agitators were demanding a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the arrest of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Nasir Maudany.

Violence erupted at around 12 noon when a section of demonstrators hurled stones at the police force stationed at the main gate of the Secretariat. They tried to break the police barricade. The police trained the water cannon on the protesters and lobbed teargas shells to disperse them. They later cane-charged the agitators.

A tense situation prevailed on the arterial road for over 15 minutes as the police and the Home Guards attempted to forcibly arrest the injured activists and shift them to the station.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders later intervened to shift the injured from the A.R camp to the General Hospital. At the General Hospital also, the police and BJP, ABVP activists entered into an altercation over delay in providing medical aid to the injured and alleged inhuman treatment by the police. Later, the injured were shifted to the Medical College Hospital.

Five policemen sustained minor injuries in the incident, the police said. The Cantonment police have registered a case against 14 ABVP activists. Six of the arrested have been remanded.

Activists of the ABVP and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha took out a march to the Secretariat in the evening in protest against the alleged high-handedness of the police and denial of medical aid to the injured.