Protesters who were staging a stir for the past six days, demanding jallikattu, were on Monday removed by the police in some places across the delta region while the agitators themselves withdrew their demonstrations in several places during the day that witnessed high drama in many centres. The protests that started in front of the Head Post Office here on January 17 ended on Monday.
After the State government passed an ordinance that would allow conduct of jallikattu, it was expected that the organisers would withdraw the agitations on their own. But the fringe elements which mingled among the students stoked the lengthening of the protests, forcing police intervention.
In the meantime, consternation built up among the parents. “Till such time the students protested only for conducting jallikattu, it was okay. Though we were seeing youths who clamoured for demands and spoke of issues other than jallikattu during the protest period, we were not inclined to believe that they could have had other motives and aims. Unruly elements definitely entered the arena and the call for continuation of the protests even after the State government announcement was bad and things had to end somehow,” said K. Padmanabhan of Thanjavur.
Police teams early on Monday held talks with the protesting students and counselled them to withdraw their stir as the stated objectives were achieved.
Police also managed to bring around eight youths who were staging a fast near railway junction MGR Statue even as another person who was on fast had to be removed to the hospital after he fainted on Sunday. A section of the youths who went away from the Head Post Office tried to regroup near Rajah Serfoji Government College and stage a protest which the police thwarted.
At Pattukkottai, after the police managed to withdraw the students’ stir peacefully, those who were protesting thanked the police for the security arrangements during the stir and gifted a sapling to Assistant Superintendent of Police Arvind Menon and other officers.
In Tiruvarur district, heeding the counsel of the police, students stopped their agitations and dispersed peacefully in the 13 places where the demonstrations were conducted. A strong posse of police personnel were posted in those areas to prevent regrouping of the students.
However, in Tiruvarur and Mannargudi some students boycotted classes protesting what they called police atrocities against agitating students in Chennai and elsewhere.
