A clash between LDF workers and BJP workers flared once again in Palakkad at around 4 pm on Thursday at Sultanpet. Incidents of violence have been taking place between these groups ever since two young women in their 40s, Bindu and Kanaka Durga, entered Sabarimala temple on Wednesday morning. On Thursday evening, LDF workers took out a march in Sultanpet to protest BJP workers in Palakkad for vandalising and throwing stones at a CPI (M) office and CPI office earlier on Thursday morning.
The protest in the evening reached a boiling point when LDF workers started shouting provocative political slogans at the Harika street where BJP office is located. The BJP workers, waiting inside the office, retaliated by throwing stones at the protesting LDF workers. Police immediately closed in on the protest march and accompanied the LDF protesters until its planned end point.
One person was injured in the clashes that followed and was taken to hospital.
Palakkad has seen high violence ever since two women entered Sabarimala on Wednesday morning. A CPI (M) library was torched on Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, a protest march in Palakkad, planned by the BJP, which was scheduled to begin from Government Victoria College. However, before the march commenced, it turned violent after BJP workers started throwing stones at CPI (M) office, which was near the college. Soon, Student Federation of India (a student body affiliated to the CPI(M)) and BJP workers clashed at the gate of the college, removing each other's flags from flagpoles near the gate. The police forcibly disbursed this planned protest march by the BJP, citing that violence had already taken place before the march began. Disgruntled BJP workers, while leaving the protest venue, vandalised a CPI office in the vicinity.
The CPI and CPI(M) workers called for a protest on Thursday evening following this incident in the afternoon. CPI and CPI(M) leaders were reportedly present at the Thursday evening’s protest in Sultanpet but were not able to stop the violence from taking place.