Campus violence, protest rock Thiruvananthapuram

By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Six KSU leaders of Government Law College, together with the unit president who’s a girl, had been injured in a conflict between SFI and KSU staff on the school campus on Tuesday night time. 

Later at night time, a rented home close to Kunnukuzhy the place KSU staff lived was additionally attacked and 7 individuals had been injured. And on Wednesday, a protest march to the meeting led by Youth Congress state president Shafi Parambil towards the incident turned violent with the police utilizing water cannons a number of occasions on the protesters.

KSU unit president Safna Yakub, secretary Ashik Ashraf and Nithin Thampi had been amongst these injured in Tuesday’s violence on the campus. KSU leaders blamed SFI staff for the conflict, saying it was the scholar outfit’s retaliation to KSU profitable a seat within the faculty union election. 

A video of the incident launched by KSU confirmed Safna being pushed to the bottom, dragged and crushed up by round 15 individuals reportedly finding out in the identical faculty. The conflict occurred proper after the inauguration of the brand new faculty union. 

MLA and Youth Congress state president Shafi Parambil blocks
members of the scholar outift from attacking the police
throughout the march | Vincent Pulickal

“I was targeted while trying to save a fellow KSU member who was being attacked by SFI workers. SFI did not want a political alternative on the law college campus and hence attacked us without provocation. Though there have been attacks against us in the past and we have filed complaints, no action has been taken. The college staff council has always favoured SFI and never acted on our complaints,” alleged Safna, who was hospitalised together with the opposite injured staff.

The police group current on the spot remained mute spectators, she alleged. The Museum police and Medical College police have registered instances towards 12 and 6 SFI members, respectively. Based on a counter-complaint by SFI, which alleged its members had been attacked by KSU staff, the Museum police additionally booked 28 KSU members, together with 20 who’ve been recognized.

Chaos in home
The incident triggered widespread protest with Opposition chief V D Satheesan elevating the difficulty within the meeting and Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden looking for to ban SFI within the Lok Sabha. Satheesan mentioned one couldn’t differentiate between SFI staff and goons. He mentioned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan shouldn’t stoop to the extent of a celebration secretary who orders elimination of political rivals.

“The CM has given a licence to a group of people to do anything on campuses,” Satheesan mentioned earlier than the Congress staged a walkout. In his reply, Pinarayi mentioned Satheesan was behaving like a Youth Congress/KSU chief  and was regularly shedding his psychological stability over Congress’ debacle within the latest meeting elections.

Action sought
Congress chief and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi condemned Tuesday’s assault allegedly by SFI staff and urged the state authorities to take motion towards the responsible.  

Congress state unit will observe protest day on Thursday towards “SFI hooliganism in law college”. KPCC basic secretary T U Radhakrishnan mentioned protests can be held in all districts.