Southern States
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Kerala
Arson, violence in Pathanamthitta
By Our Staff Reporter
PATHANAMTHITTA, DEC. 8. Over 30 shops, a cinema hall and two fuel-filling stations were attacked and 15 buses damaged in the Pathanamthitta municipal town limits when a violent mob, allegedly instigated by the National Development Front (NDF), unleashed terror on Friday night and in the wee hours of Saturday.
The BJP district office, Mararji Bhavan, at Kannankara, was set afire by miscreants, reducing the files, furniture and other articles in it to ashes. However, no casualties have been reported so far.
The BJP State general secretary, Mr. P.P. Mukundan, and the Viswa Hindu Parishad State organising secretary, Mr. Kummanam Rajashekharan, visited the burnt BJP office and other violence-hit places this afternoon.
Addressing two separate press conferences here today, they said both the organisations would observe a dawn-to-dusk State-wide hartal on December 10 protesting against the violence and ``the Government indifference in checking the growing religious terrorism'' in the State.
The Hindu Aikya Vedi also called for a hartal on December 10 to protest against the Pathanamthitta incidents.
The vandals who unleashed terror in the otherwise peaceful hill district headquarters even surrounded the Dy.SP, Mr. R. Ramachandran Nair, who tried to stop them at around 1 a.m. The Dy.Sp, who somehow managed to escape from the mob, had to fire into the air to disperse them, the police said.
According to the police, there was an altercation between two groups of people at the Kumbazha junction over the pasting of posters which was later settled amicably.
Around 12 midnight, a jeep carrying Sabarimala pilgrims was reportedly attacked by another group of people at Kulasekharapati on the T.K. Road. The police party headed by the Dy.SP took three persons into custody from there.
A pilgrim from Haripad, Mr. Baiju, was injured in the attack, the police said. Three persons, Shihabudeen (24), Naushad (29) and Muhammed Basheer (38) were arrested in connection with the incident.
There are unconfirmed reports that a Congress municipal councillor, who was among the miscreants, was among the few people taken into police custody.
The Superintendent of Police, Mr K. Radhakrishnan Nair, who rushed to the spot following the reported assault on the DySP, said that additional police force was deployed in the town around 1.30 p.m.
The violent mob hurled stones at two Pampa-bound KSRTC buses injuring a few pilgrims and the police had to fire into the air when another group of miscreants tried to set afire a petrol bunk.
Meanwhile, yet another group of miscreants which was advancing from Kannankara to the town attacked a cinema hall, a fuel-filling station and a number of shops. The charred remains of a scooter, a bunk shop and a bicycle were found on the Pathanamthitta-Kumbazha road this morning.
The SP said the situation was under control by 2.30 p.m. and police pickets were set up at eight points in the municipal limits. However, there were reports that the vandalism went on till 4 a.m. today.
Meanwhile, the District Collector, Mr. P.S. Enos, issued prohibitory orders for five days in the Pathanamthitta municipal limits and in the Omalloor panchayat limits under Sections 21 and 23 of the Kerala Police Act from December 8 to 12.
The representatives of the BJP and the VHP walked out of the peace talks convened by the District Collector, protesting against the presence of those who were allegedly behind the violence at the meeting.
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