Muslim panel calls for hartal in Ernakulam

Kochi: The Muslim Coordination Committee has called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Ernakulam district on Tuesday protesting Monday's police action on its marchers to the High Court. Nearly 1,500 members of some Muslim outfits had assembled at Judges Avenue and took out the march protesting against its order annulling the marriage of a Hindu convert to a Muslim man. A huge posse of police stopped the march before the St Albert’s College by raising barricades. When the protestors forcefully tried to proceed further, they fired water cannon and teargas shells.

The situation soon got out of control, and there were pitched battles between the protestors and cops with the later resorting to lathi-charge to disperse the mob.
“Four protesters and two policemen suffered injuries in the melee. A case for rioting (Section 283 IPC) was lodged with the Central Police station,” an officer said. "Though the committee obtained permission for assembly of 500 people, nearly 1500 had gathered there." “The police lathi-charged us without any provocation,” said V. K. Shaukat Ali, the general convenor of the committee.

The High Court on Thursday declared as “null and void” the marriage of the 24-year-old Vaikom native and sent to her parents, holding that it was not the familiar situation of a girl falling in love with a boy of a different faith and wanting to get married, which is common. "In all such cases, this court has been consistent in accepting the choice of the girl. However, the case is different," the court observed. The Committee, however, claimed that the marriage between Hadiya, her name after embracing Islam, and Shefin Jahan, a Kollam native, was valid as per Islamic customs.