Palakkad: Police across the country still follow a British era style of lathi charge, but not any longer. Beginning with Kerala Police, cops have decided to discard the old style of lathi charge and will adopt a modified method. A new lathi drill at Kallekkad AR police camp was held on May 21.

According to DIG (administration) Sethuraman, protesters are not the enemy and they have right to protest, therefore no serious injury should be caused by lathi charge.

As per the new method, hitting on the head is not allowed and police can beat people only on the muscles below the shoulder, knees and sides of the body.

The lathi drill, directed by the DIG (administration) showed policemen how to control crowd without causing any serious injury to people.

Reports cited Sethuraman who said that the new style was designed in 2009 when he commanded the KAP-4 battalion in order to avoid injuring people during lathi charge. But the new method of lathi charge was not approved officially until recently.