A protest march taken out to the district collectorate here by the Students Federation of India (SFI) on Monday, demanding that the issues in the self-financing education sector be settled, turned aggressive after the police resorted to lathi charge.
Both students and police personnel were injured in the violence that ensued.
Police said that they began to cane the students to disperse them only after the students started throwing stones at the police and attacked them with sticks. Five police officials, including two Circle Inspectors, and 26 students, two of them seriously, were injured.
Alappuzha South Circle Inspector V.K. Sanal Kumar, Pulinkunnu CI Sajan Koickal, probation Sub-Inspector Sunil and two civil police officers suffered injuries.
SFI district joint secretary Sibi Varghese and SFI area secretary Mohammed Ashiq were among the students injured.
The police have arrested and produced before court 25 students while cases have been registered against 150 persons. The march, which began at 12 noon, turned violent when the students tried to barge into the collectorate over the police barricades. When they were stopped, some of them used sticks to attack the policemen, after which the police retaliated.
With policemen also suffering injuries, the retaliation turned out to be quite fierce. The policemen chased the students and caned them even after they tried to escape by entering some nearby shops. The situation was brought under control after District Superintendent of Police C.H. Nagaraju reached the spot.
