For the first time in many years, young volunteers from various colleges in Coimbatore came together to press their demand for lifting the ban on jallikattu.
The student-volunteers took out an 11-km rally from Codissia ground at around 9 am to reach VOC Park ground by noon. By then, the park ground was brimming with the student crowd, which spilled over to the street outside the Nehru Stadium. .
They were dressed in black, moved around in cars (with some sitting on the roof of cars) and bikes, while some were on foot, shouting slogans against the Centre and state government.
Some of them said they would continue the protest till they see the sport (jallikattu) telecast live on TV. A student who preferred anonymity said the mammoth turnout was the result of their intensive social media campaign since last night.
Meanwhile, all roads leading to VOC ground were barricaded, resulting in traffic snarls on Avinashi road and the by-lanes off the main arterial roads here. Vehicles were not barred, but they could only move at snail’s pace.
Police officials remained passive, merely requesting the crowd not to turn violent.
Techies’ protest
At 1.15 pm, four techies from an IT company in Keeranatham village, an emerging IT hub, decided to sit outside the tech-park campus to mark their protest against the ban on jallikattu.
Within an hour, their number swelled to over 1,000, as their colleagues from companies in the vicinity joined them.