Karnataka CM Yediyurappa faces black flag protests in Kerala

He is scheduled to visit a temple in Kannur and attend a private function there

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition staged a black flag protest against Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa when he arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport on Tuesday to board a flight to Kannur in northern Kerala.

The police grappled with Kerala Students Union (KSU) activists who attempted to impede the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader’s journey.

A phalanx of armed police officers had thrown a security ring around the Karnataka Chief Minister and escorted him into the airport hurriedly.

The police later hustled the KSU protesters in a van to the nearby Shangumugham Police station.

On Monday evening, Mr. Yediyurappa faced a similar Congress protest on his way back from the famed Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple at Thampanoor.

He is scheduled to visit a temple in Kannur and attend a private function there. The Kerala police have upped his security.

The Congress had earlier slammed a purported statement by the Karnataka Home Minister that Keralites from across the border in Kasargod had orchestrated the anti-citizenship law violence in Mangaluru last week.

The UDF had sent a delegation to Mangaluru that visited the houses of two protesters killed in police firing as part of their fact-finding mission. Congress State working president K. Sudhakaran, MP, and Kasargod MP Rajmohan Unnithan had led the team.

The team later told newspersons on Monday that the Mangaluru police wantonly shot at fleeing protesters. They allegedly used disproportionate lethal force against the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protesters. The delegation also slammed the Mangaluru police for detaining journalists from Kerala by portraying them as “armed trouble-makers with fake credentials”.

A delegation led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) is scheduled to visit Mangaluru on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the State police said the traffic between Mangaluru and Kasargod had limped back to normalcy.

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