Violence broke out in Alanganallur on Monday after a group of youngsters resorted to stone pelting following the forceful eviction of around 200 protesters, who refused to call off their protest despite majority of the village deciding to conduct Jallikattu on February 1.
At least 15 people were injured in the violence and around 35 protesters had been detained by the police.
Tension mounted in the village after a group of protesters — predominantly activists from other cities who were playing a pivotal role in the protests from Day 1 — managed to retain a number of locals, particularly women, to continue the protests.
Emotions were running high as the protesters termed everyone calling for stopping the protests as ‘traitors’.
They also said that the State government was cheating them by providing a stopgap solution for jallikattu.
Meanwhile, the village jallikattu organising committee convened a meeting at a temple near the Jallikattu arena and announced that they will conduct jallikattu on February 1, in coordination with the district administration. They also thanked the protesters who had come from all over Tamil Nadu for their victory. However, their repeated appeals to the protesters to give up the struggle failed.
Incidents of stone pelting
As police began to round up the protesters, a group of women protesters — mostly from the village — formed a chain around the remaining protesters. Some of the women were forcefully taken away by their husbands.
Close to noon, police began forcefully evicting all the protesters from the venue. Soon after the protesters were evicted, some of the local youths started pelting stones from the adjacent streets towards the police.
The police later resorted to lathi charge and threw stones back at the youths to chase them away.
A riot-like situation prevailed in the village for about 20 minutes, following which the situation was brought under control.
15 injured
At least 15 people, including women and police personnel, incurred minor to severe injuries in the violence. The injured were taken to different hospitals. Madurai South Zone Inspector General of Police S. Murugan visited the spot and assessed the situation.
