Thiruvananthapuram: Pro-Left student
activists and police clashed here on Wednesday as protest march taken
out by the campus agitators over the issue of self-financing
college admissions turned violent.
Several students and policemen were injured as the march
organised by SFI and AISF, campus wings of CPI-M and CPI, took
a violent turn in front of the government secretariat after
the marchers sought to press ahead breaching barricades raised
by law enforcers.
Police lobbed tear-gas grenades, pumped water cannon and
lathicharged the protesters, who kept on moving despite many
of them suffering injuries and bleeding profusely.
Students were chased by police to the campus of the
University College where many of the agitators had fled.
Police alleged that the situation got out of control after
the agitators pelted stones at them.
The protest held up the traffic for over an hour.
For the last few days, pro-Left student and youth outfits
in the state have been on a protest mode accusing UDF
government of having failed to rein in the managements of
self-financing colleges which had declined to follow the
policy of filling half the seats in their institutions from
the state quota.
PTI
