Jallikattu protest: Violence breaks out in Chennai, other parts of TN

Violence broke out in Chennai and a few other places in Tamil Nadu afterpolice started evicting pro-Jallikattu protesters on Monday morning.

A group of about 50 protesters set Ice House police station on fire. Around 15 bikes parked in front of the police station also went up in flames.

The protesters hurled stones at the police station, and at least 22 policemen were injured in the stone-pelting.

Protesters clashed with police in front of Parthasarathy Temple arch near Marina. Protesters set tyres on fire and threw them at police. Police used teargas at the protesters.

Protesters hurled petrol bombs at Presidency College.

MTC buses came under attack in some places in the city. Some bus passengers suffered injuries when protesters threw stones at the buses.

The city was experiencing traffic blocks on all main roads. Traffic was severely affected on East Coast Road (ECR) and Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) as protesters, including techies, blocked the roads. Nearly thousands of protesters sat on the on OMR.
Around 1,000 people held a protest near Taramani. “We would have called off the protest peacefully, but force is the only language people in power seem to understand,” said Hariharan, a law student.
“We come in peace. We don’t trust our leaders who have been trying to gain momentum from our protest,” he said.

“Traffic has been affected in almost all roads,” traffic police said, adding that they were yet to begin clearing it up.

MRTS train services were suspended.

Some schools sent out messages to parents asking them to pick up their wards early.

The situation is also tensed in Alanganallur and Tamukkam Ground in Madurai and in Coimbatore too.

In Coimbatore, police detained nearly 300 students, who refused to move out of the VOC Park ground. The students were detained in a marriage hall on Avinashi Road. The students refused to go back home and are continued to protest. Slowly, crowd began swelling around the marriage hall and more students joined in. Police detained all of them and took them to another marriage hall at Ganapathy.

The standoff between the police and the protesters on Marina Beach in Chennai started around 6am.

Thousands of protesters including students, young professionals, women and children woke up to the announcement they had waited for long. A speaker representing the core organising committee announced, “We have received a copy of the ordinance. If all goes well, it will be made into an Act in the Tamil Nadu assembly which convenes today. Our lawyers say that there is good chance that it will serve as a permanent solution.”

The crowd went silent as a lawyer got on the stage next. He told the crowd that the draft seems acceptable but it has no signature or a seal of approval. The speaker who spoke next said, “We need half a day to study the draft. We cannot be sure until then.”

Police requested the protesters on Marina Beach to disperse in a peaceful manner as “their purpose has been fully achieved” since the state government promulgated an ordinance on Saturday. However, most protesters refused to leave.

Armed with loudspeakers, first about a dozen policemen entered the protest arena. Hundreds of cops followed thereafter. Protesters huddled together and sat down in defiance. Student volunteers sprang into action and formed a human chain around the protesters. As police marched forward, protestors began to panic.

With no speaker to give them direction, the crowd began singing the national anthem. When police refused to step back, they sang it one more time. When police broke into the crowd, the protesters chanted in unison, “Vande Madaram” and “Jai Hind”. Within minutes, police took charge of the protest arena. They dragged protesters out one by one. With nowhere to go, protesters ran to the seafront.

By 8am, many of the protesters gave up and walked off with heavy hearts. Some were in tears. They had planned one last blowout before leaving Marina. One of the sobbing protesters, Ramkumar, a third year student of a city college, said, “They just needed half a day to study the draft. We could have stayed on.”

-ToI
-Agencies