Parts of Kerala’s capital district Thiruvananthapuram turned into arenas of street fights on Friday when the police used brutal force against the Catholic faithful demanding right to perform pilgrimage to the site of a destroyed Holy Cross and altar at Kurisumala (Mount of the Cross) in Bonacaud forest area coming within the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary and the latter resisting the cops with stones.

Many, including policemen, priests and women, were injured in the clashes and tension prevailed Friday evening at Vithura in the district even as discussions continued between Church authorities and the State Government on allowing pilgrims to enter the Mount of the Cross for offering prayers.

Trouble started in the morning when hundreds of believers from the Neyyattinkara Diocese of the latin Catholic Church, led by several priests, marched to the Kanithadam Forest check-post where scores of police personnel had been deployed in order to block entry to the site of the Cross and altar that were destroyed mysteriously last August.

The priests and the faithful who undertook the march to Kurisumala reportedly wanted to install a new Cross in the place of the destroyed one. They said the wooden Cross destroyed last year was installed more than 60 years ago. The faithful said it was painful to see people terming demand for right to offer worship as part of land-grabbing.

The police resorted to lathi-charge after the believers, determined to trek to the Cross site, broke the barricades. Police officials said they were forced to use canes after they came under heavy stone-pelting but the pilgrims denied the charge. Policemen wielding lathis could be seen chasing priests through the bushes in the area.

Reports said at least 15 policemen, including two senior officials, and 25 pilgrims including three priests suffered injuries in the clash. “We did not start the stone-pelting. It could have been the work of some antisocial elements that had infiltrated the crowd. We are just peaceful pilgrims requesting opportunity to offer prayers,” claimed a senior priest.

As tension prevailed in the area, the Government held discussions with the Church authorities and the Tahsildar of Nedumangad agreed to allow 15 representatives of the pilgrims to proceed to Kurisumala but this was not acceptable to the faithful. However, the officials stuck to the decision not to allow the entire pilgrims to move on to Kurisumala.

The venue of the clashes between the police and the faithful shifted from Kanithadam to the Kallingal Junction in Vithura late Friday afternoon. As the faithful blocked traffic along the State highway in Vithura, the police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse them and they responded with heavy stone-pelting. Several people suffered injuries in the clashes.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, who intervened in the issue by holding discussions with the Government, said Forest Minister K Raju had agreed to allow 50 pilgrims to offer prayers at the Cross site. The Forest Department said there was no way the Government could allow the entire pilgrims to proceed to the Cross site.

“The condition that only 50 could be allowed to trek to the Cross site is not acceptable,” a senior clergy from the diocese said. “All of us should be allowed to go there freely. We should have the freedom to worship. It is a right the Constitution guarantees and the officials cannot take away that right from us,” he added.

The faithful of the diocese used to perform pilgrimage to Kurisumala on the first Friday of the year but the Forest Department had informed the Church in advance that the pilgrimage by large number of faithful could not be allowed as the High Court had ordered status quo at the site after the destruction of the Cross and altar last August.

“The officials are trying to create misunderstanding. The order for status quo means there cannot be any new constructions. The court has not banned worship or pilgrimage,” said a priest. The Forest Department has made it clear that it had nothing to do with the destruction of the Cross but the Church claims that there was a conspiracy behind it.