Adani Port: Violent protests over billionaire’s Kerala project
Around 36 police officers were injured and a police station was attacked in the southern Indian state of Kerala after protests against the construction of the country’s largest port escalated into violence.
Several protesters were also injured, and some police vehicles were damaged.
The port is being built by Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd, which is owned by Asia’s richest man, Gautam Adani.
For about three months, hundreds of people from the local fishing community – mostly Christians – had been protesting against the $900m (£744m) project, alleging the construction was causing coastal erosion and destroying their livelihoods. Many of them live in temporary shelters in the area.
Last week, the Kerala high court had said that the protesters must comply with its earlier order for “unhindered ingress and egress” to the project site.
But over the weekend, hundreds of protesters blocked the company’s construction vehicles from entering the port, prompting the arrest of many of them.
On Sunday night, protesters stormed a local police station demanding their release, leading to clashes with the police.
“A mob gathered at the police station in the evening and demanded the release of a few persons who were arrested in another case,” a senior state police official told reporters, adding that they had deployed around 900 police personnel in the area.
But Eugene H Pereira, a vicar general who was one of the convenors of the protest, blamed the police for provoking the protesters, who he said “were ready to leave the area without creating any trouble”.
“The state government is responsible for the violence. They were doing it to prepare the ground for forcible eviction of the protesters,” he alleged.
A state minister denied this, and accused the protesters of stalling the project even after the government had agreed to meet their demands.
After the violence, the Adani Group approached the state’s high court, which on Monday asked the government to file a report.
Agencies