Alanganallur residents besieged by cops
The local villagers, who had provided them with food and shelter for the past two days, had earned the wrath of the police.
Madurai: Thousands of villagers including women and children from 25 villages gathered at Alanganallur on Tuesday and sat on a protest on arterial roads demanding the release of arrested youngsters.
The youths from across Tamil Nadu have been taking out protests in Alanganallur since Monday morning with a view to protect Tamil culture by trying to hold jallikattu at the world renowned venue. The local villagers, who had provided them with food and shelter for the past two days, had earned the wrath of the police.
After the protesting youth were forcefully taken away by police, this morning, hundreds of college students from Madurai district trooped to the protest site once the message spread through social media. People from interior villages, who were unable to make it to the venue, organised road blockages in their villages while people in Madurai city and Dindigul also condemned the arrest.
“Release our children, or arrest all of us with our bulls,” said Muhumari (65) from Alanganallur who raised slogans along with other women against the police’s ‘highhandedness’.
The police said that 94 youths, including 32 locals, arrested for releasing a bull in Alanganallur yesterday were released while the others refused to leave.
Meanwhile, when the AIADMK MLA Sholavadan Manickam visited the protest site, the villagers forced him to leave. But they allowed DMK MLA P. Moorthy, Naam Tamilar Katchi leader Seeman, Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader R Sarathkumar, film director and musicians Ameer Sultan, Karthik Subbaraj and G.V. Prakash to address them.
The villagers also narrated the suffering of the youth at the hands of the police on Monday night when they were prevented from even going to the bathroom.
“Around 8 pm, the police fortified the jallikattu arena where the youth sat in protest and immobilised them,” said M. Malaiveeran from Alanganallur, who was prevented from distributing food to the youth.
The area around Vadivasal situated near Kali Amman temple was found fortified by the police even today. The police also restricted the people’s movement in the streets around the arena.
Just a few metres away, 12-year-old Jennifer sat terrified in her house. “The police pushed me aside when I took water for those brothers. A wall of police personnel covered either side of our street in the night,” said Jennifer. “Is protesting to safeguard our tradition wrong in the eye of law,” she asked. The police had also kept the villagers literarily under ‘house arrest’ the entire night. “We were not allowed to attend the call of nature until 9 am today,” said Veera Prabha.
A few among the released youths visited Alanganallur, but the villagers refused to withdraw the protest demanding that the police bring all the youths to the village.