People's Democracy

Antony Govt’s Barbarism Reaches New Heights

Grenades Used Against Fasting Students

Aboo Backer  

THE barbarism of Antony government’s police is reaching unprecedented levels with each passing day of struggles in Kerala. The latest attack was, once again, on the student community which was decrying the rampant commercialisation of education in the state. Displaying unparalleled brutality, the police lobbed grenades on peacefully protesting students, apart from resorting to lathicharge and use of tear-gas in various places across the state. Girls were beaten and abused, student leaders were chased and attacked. A student leader was beaten on his spine injuring him seriously (his condition remains precarious at the time of writing this). Most cruelly, the police did not even bother to shift such injured students to the hospitals. Fellow students and political leaders who reached the spot undertook this task. Sajeesh, a student of the Law Academy, is in the intensive care unit fighting for his life. He has undergone major surgeries to remove a grenade shell which pierced his back.

The havoc created by the police at these places was evident with many tear gas shells, unexploded grenades, chappals strewn all around. Among those hospitalised with injuries included P Biju and Joshy Jose (SFI state joint secretaries), Bimal and Sindhu Joy (SFI central executive committee members), Latheesh B Chandran (Kerala University union general secretary), Mangalapuram Shafi (Socialist Students Organisation), Arunkumar (AISF state joint secretary), Kunhumon (AISF district vice president), S S Manoj, P S Harikumar, G  Muraleedharan, M P Russel and K L Jiji.

The Antony government that has totally surrendered before rabid communal forces in the state is showing its might on students. The police entered the educational institutions with out any provocation. Teachers were unceremoniously threatened out of classrooms and then the police began their operation.  They entered the Govt Arts College, Model High School, and many other institutions.

The series of assaults began by about 12 noon.  The student demonstration started at Palayam Martyrs square. The police rounded up the demonstration from the front and the back and began the lathicharge unprovoked in front of the cantonment gate of the secretariat.   Students were chased like animals. Those that tried valiantly to resist were brutally assaulted.  Grenades were thrown and tear gas used.  The cowardly squadrons of police that had hidden mufti within the AG’s Office compound jumped like hounds on their prey.  No less that the City Police Commissioner Rajan Singh commanded the police to wage this inhuman assault on students.