Youth outfits squat on rail tracks, block trains in Kerala

Activists of the DYFI, the youth wing of the ruling CPI(M), squatted on the railway tracks at Thiruvalla and Kollam and blocked trains on Monday protesting the police action on students of Jamia Millia University in Delhi.

While the protesters blocked the Velankani-Ernakulam express for 13 minutes at the Thiruvalla railway station in Pathnamthitta district, the Island express was blocked at the Kollam station, railway sources told PTI.

The activists, who squatted on the tracks, were later arrested and removed.

In Palakkad, the Congress activists led by MLA Shafi Parambil, laid a seige of the Palakkad railway station.

Students outfits, including Kerala Students Union (KSU) of the opposition Congress, blocked trains at various places including Kozhikode, Thalassery, Kannur, and Palakkad on Sunday night against the police action.

Hundreds of students of the Jamia Millia off campus in Kannur, took out a march against police action on students and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

They raised slogans and held black placards "Say no to NRC".

In Kochi, 28 students were arrested in connection with the protest against the amended Citizenship law at the campus of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT).

The arrests were made as they blocked roads in campus when Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who is also the chancellor of the Universities in Kerala, was chairing a conference of the vice chancellors at CUSAT.

However, the conference was not affected by the protest.