TN police evict Jallikattu protectors amidst sporadic violence

Chennai: Tamil Nadu police swung into action on January 23 morning to evict protestors on the Jallikattu issue. In many areas, police succeeded in evicting them peacefully but there was sporadic violence in some places including Chennai as police used teargas shells and a mild lathi charge to evict protestors on road roko.

Police showed enormous patience on Sunday, appealing to protestors to end the strike as the ordinance enabling Jallikattu had been approved and the Tamil Nadu Assembly was taking up the Bill to be passed in a day or two. However, the protestors including those at Alanganallur in Madurai and on the Marina beach in Chennai, kept reiterating their demand for a "permanent solution" though none was sure what it meant,

In the early hours of January 23, police repeatedly asked the protestors to move out as traffic flow was obstructed. When the protestors did not leave, police removed them physically and asked them to disperse. Some of them were arrested as they continued to defy the police. In Chennai, as protestors were pushed back from the road towards the shore, more protestors tried to join them from adjoining areas. However, police placed barricades on Radhakrishnan Salai, and near Vivekananda House and at the Thiruvallikeni junction.

There were a few scuffles and police lobbed teargas shells and used mild lathi charge when there protestors threw stones, sand and other objects at them.