Thiruvananthapuram: A special police squad has been constituted under Thiruvananthapuram Range DIG R Nishanthini to maintain law and order in the Vizhinjam area, where the protests against the Adani port project had taken a violent turn.
Seven Superintendents of Police (SPs) have also been appointed to assist the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police. Around 700 police personnel have been deployed in the area.
The government is learnt to have instructed the special team not to display haste in carrying out arrests.
A case has been registered against around 3,000 identifiable persons after anti-port activists attacked the Vizhinjam police station on Sunday.
They have been charged with murder, among other sections of the IPC. Even though losses amounting to Rs 85 lakh were caused following the violence, no arrests have been made so far.
According to the first information report (FIR), the agitators had threatened to burn the police personnel to death by setting fire to the Vizhinjam police station if five persons arrested over Saturday’s violence were not released.
The FIR also says that Sunday’s attack on the police station was a planned act intended to kill police personnel.
The police had earlier filed a case against numerous persons, including Archbishop Dr Thomas J Netto, the head of the Latin Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram, over a scuffle involving two groups at Mulloor in Vizhinjam on Saturday and arrested five people.
A march taken out to the Vizhinjam police station on Sunday demanding the release of these five persons led to widespread violence and arson, leaving several police personnel injured and vehicles gutted.
