Protest against GAIL pipeline: Police resort to lathicharge, lob teargas shells
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Kozhikode: Police resorted to lathicharge and burst teargas shells as a protest against the proposed Liquefied Natural Gas project of the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) turned violent at Mukkam town in Kozhikode district Wednesday.
No one was injured in the lathicharge, police said.
When GAIL officials reached the venue to continue the land acquisition process for the project, a group of people belonging to Mukkam and nearby areas pelted stones on vehicles and blocked government-run Kerala road transport corporation buses plying on the Kozhikode-Malappuram route.
A police vehicle was damaged and a policeman received minor injuries due to stone pelting which prompted the lathicharge and bursting of teargas shells, police said. A makeshift structure of the protesters was removed by police.
Six persons have been taken into custody in connection with the violence, they said.
People under the banner of a protest council have been protesting for the past few months against the land acquisition for laying the pipeline and demanded a re-survey.
Under the GAIL's Kochi-Koottanad-Bengaluru-Mangaluru LNG project, pipes will be laid for about 80 km in the district.