Kerala govt to probe Malayalappuzha incident

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">thiruvananthapuram: kerala chief minister a k antony on friday said the government would inquire into the circumstances in which top deveaswom board officials were held captive for four hours at a temple premise in pathanamthitta district on thursday and subsequent police firing in the air and lathicharge to disperse a mob.responding to an adjournment notice on the matter by raju abraham (cpm) in the state assembly, antony said the area, where a <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">hartal</span> was being observed on friday, was peaceful now. narrating the sequence of events, the chief minister said travancore devswom board authorities, including development commissioner c p nair, who went through the ordeal, had gone to the malayalapuzha devi temple to settle the dispute over the details of the "sathakodi archana" slated to begin on march 31. what happended there was not a clash between the local people and police, who had exercised utmost restraint, he said. the police had to fire in the air and resort to teargassing and lathicharging only to disperse the mob, while the tdb officials were being released from the hall where they were held captive for hours, he added. </div> </div>