Kerala: Police lathicharges Youth Congress workers, party leaders slam action

Police personnel lathicharge on Youth Congress and KSU supporters during a protest. Pic/PTI

The opposition Congress in Kerala on Tuesday strongly condemned the alleged police high-handedness against protesting Youth Congress activists in Kalamassery here.

The party warned the state government of intensifying its protests over the tax proposals in the state budget if no action was taken against the personnel who "cruelly attacked" the workers to disperse them from the spot.

Several Youth Congress activists and some policemen suffered injuries when the march taken out by the workers, demanding the rollback of fuel cess and other tax proposals in the state budget, turned violent.

While Kerala police said the protesters turned violent without any provocation, the party leaders alleged that they were brutally beaten up by police personnel for no reason.

Youth Congress state president and MLA Shafi Parambil and DCC president Mohammed Shiyas later staged a sit-in in front of the local police station in Kalamassery seeking action against those who lathi-charged their activists.

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MLAs Uma Thomas and T J Vinod arrived at the station and held discussions with the police authorities later.

Reacting to the incident, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan alleged that over 150 police personnel attacked the Youth Congress workers, who protested against the fuel cess, without any provocation.

He also accused the circle inspectors of Kalamassery and Tripunithura stations of leading the attack against the party workers.

Stating that the police attacked the party activists demanding an end to the strike against the government over the fuel cess, he said the protests could not be suppressed using force.

Satheesan also warned the government of scaling up its agitation by MLAs, people's representatives and senior leaders in defiance of the actions by the police and the government.

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