Unidentified persons hurled petrol bombs at the BJP office in Coimbatore in the early hours of Wednesday. The police said that two petrol bombs were thrown at the party office located on VKK Menon Road near Gandhipuram.
According to police, the attack took place around 3.20 a.m. The petrol bombs hit the wall of the two-storeyed building that houses the party office. The party office is located on the first floor.
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One of the bombs hit the bill board of a travel agency functioning on the first floor. The police said that no damages were reported in the incident.
The police have got CCTV visuals of the attack. The identity of the assailants are yet to be traced, said the police.
Senior police officers have rushed to the party office where adequate number of policemen have been deployed to avoid law and order issues.
Balu, a member of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, has been taken into custody. The policeman who was on security duty at the BJP office had seen three persons running away after throwing petrol bombs. The police are continuing search for others involved in the incident.
The incident is believed to be in response to that of a statue of Dravidar Kazhagam founder Periyar being vandalised in Tiruppattur on Tuesday, after BJP leader H. Raja, in a Facebook post attributed to him, advocated the removal of Periyar’s statues. This was after a statue of Communist icon Lenin in Tripura was felled by BJP supporters following the party's victory in the State Assembly polls. Confirmation on a possible link between the incidents is awaited.
BJP State General Secretary Vanathi Srinivasan said the party suspected that the hurling of bombs could be the work of those organisations that could not digest BJP's growth in Tamil Nadu, and Coimbatore in particular, and who upheld violence as a political tool.
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