Petition to NHRC: Investigate brutal attack on students in Kerala

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Investigate brutal attack on students in Kerala

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: mohanlal panda <pandaml67@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 8:13 AM
Subject: Investigate brutal attack on students in Kerala
To: akpnhrc@yahoo.com
Cc: jrlawnhrc@hub.nic.in

The Chairperson

NHRC

New Delhi.

Sir,

Greetings from PVCHR.

Please refer to the news in the link and the report: http://www.dailypioneer.com/349400/Brutal-police-attack-on-Left-agitators-in-Kerala.html

Brutal police attack on Left agitators in Kerala
June 29, 2011 10:24:47 PM

VR Jayaraj | Thiruvananthapuram

A girl student was on Wednesday admitted to the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram with serious head injuries suffered in an attack by the police within the campus of the famed University College in the Kerala capital.

Several activists including State leaders of CPI(M) student outfit SFI and CPI youth wing AIYF also suffered injuries in the unprovoked police action amidst their respective marches organized to protest against the Congress-led UDF Government's alleged pro-management stand on the issue of admissions and fees in private medical colleges.

The police turned some of the arterial roads in the capital into virtual war scenes by lobbing tear-gas shells and stun grenades at the retreating agitators and showering blows on the heads of the isolated activists with their heavy canes. Traffic on the main roads remained paralyzed for over two hours on Wednesday morning.

The girl student, Saranya, is said to have no political affiliations. She was in her second-year BA (Geography) classroom when the police barged into the college campus. The police struck her in the head when she ran off her classroom panicked by the violence in the college campus.

Despite the pleadings of other students, the police allegedly disallowed them to take the bleeding girl to the hospital for over an hour. She was first taken to the General Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram but had to be shifted to the Medical College Hospital after her condition worsened due to excessive nasal bleeding.

The police had entered the college campus while they were chasing the SFI marchers back from their demonstration to the State Secretariat. They burst several stun grenades and teargas shells within the campus and beat up students despite the loud pleas of party-neutral students to get out of the college.

Among the several injured SFI activists were State leaders KV Sumesh and A Raheem. In the unprovoked police action on the AIYF march from the Secretariat to the Assembly complex, several youth leaders were seriously injured.

"These unprovoked attacks by the police were as per the direct orders from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy himself. They are doing this to protect the interests of the Christian managements running four medical colleges. The people of Kerala will not tolerate this," said CPI(M) leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who visited the spot along with other party leaders.

CPI leaders KP Rajendran and Pannyan Raveendran reached the spot where AIYF activists were attacked by the police. Left leaders later led a demonstration in Thiruvananthapuram to protest against the police violence. The DYFI held a protest march in the city on Wednesday evening. The AISF called for a State-0wide 'education bandh' on Thursday.

Eye-witnesses said the police had launched the brutal attack on the SFI and AIYF activists without provocation. When the AIYF men tried to remove the barricades, the police used the water cannons. "I saw the police beating up helpless young men who fell down on the road in their rush to escape the water-jet," said Nalini, a government employee.

The police were said to have come prepared for the attack in the context of the violence during a similar agitation last Friday in which some policemen were injured in stone-pelting. According to rumours, a top city police official had given strict orders to his force to pounce upon the agitators at the first indication of trouble.

Last Friday also, the police had barged into the University College campus but the student leaders had then been able to send them back. On Wednesday, the police even attacked students after hunting them down when they took shelter in a shopping complex.