Violence marks BJP’s Kasaragod hartal

Heavy vehicles lined up on the National Highway after normal life was throw out of gear following a BJP-sponsored day-long hartal in Kasaragod on Tuesday.

The day-long Sangh Parivar-sponsored hartal in the district on Tuesday to protest against the attacks allegedly by CPI(M) activists and alleged police excesses on their leaders in and around Cheruvathur on Monday witnessed sporadic incidents of violence crippling normal life.

Hartal supporters attacked several shops besides waylaying vehicles plying through the district. BJP workers reached the party stronghold of Karanthakad locality here in the early hours and blocked heavy vehicles plying along the National Highway. The hartal supporters also forced the closure of all banks in the district shortly after they opened in the morning.

With public transport remaining off the road, attendance in the Collectorate and other offices in the district was minimal, sources here said.

The protesters obstructed electronic mediapersons as they tried to film hartal supporters who were protesting in front of the CPI(M) local committee office on the M.G. Road here.

The protesters also barged into the District Cooperative Bank and pelted stones at the building. However, the bank employees downed the shutters preventing major damage.

When hartal supporters tried to pelt stones at the Indian Coffee House, a CPI-M run cooperative restaurant on the new bus station premises, the police lobbed teargas shells and resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the mob.

Senior officials headed by Superintendent of Police Thomson Jose kept close vigil on the protesters.

While most shops and business houses downed their shutters, normal life in CPI(M) strongholds in and around Cheruvathur was not affected.

Meanwhile, Indian Union Muslim League leader Cherkalam Abdulla cautioned both the BJP and the CPI(M) against the moves to turn an otherwise peaceful Kasaragod into a “politically volatile” district.