The State capital remained on tenterhooks as the Statewide hartal called by the Sabarimala Karma Samithi on Thursday was marked by several violent incidents.
Tension continued to prevail in several areas, especially the city suburbs and rural parts of the district with numerous incidents of retaliatory attacks being reported.
The relative peace that the district witnessed during the early hours of the day proved deceptive with full-blown violence being reported from various places later on, prompting the police to intensify security across the region.
Several rounds of clashes among Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers were reported at Malayinkeezhu and Nedumangad, resulting in many activists and police officers sustaining injuries. Two police officers attached to the Nedumangad police station, including sub-inspector Sunil Gopi, were attacked by hartal supporters after they attempted to prevent the latter from forcibly closing down shops at Anad. After vandalising a police jeep, the mob freed a person who was taken into custody by the police team.
Later, CPI(M) and BJP workers, who gathered in front of the Nedumangad police station, clashed against each other, during which firecrackers were hurled by unidentified persons, creating panic in the region. Soon, the houses of many workers of the rival parties, including councillors of the Nedumangad municipality, came under attack. The workers of the parties were also engaged in a street fight at Malayinkeezhu with stones being thrown at each other, prompting the police to fire tear gas shells and swing batons to break up the skirmishes.
Bricks hurled
Bricks were hurled towards the Kattakada taluk office by hartal supports. While the bricks landed near the tahsildar’s chamber, none were hurt in the incident. Several party offices, mostly those of the CPI(M), were vandalised in various places, including Nedumangad, Vattiyurkavu, and Kaniyapuram.
Two cameramen were manhandled by Sangh Parivar activists while they were recording hartal supporters forcibly closing down shops near Pazhavangady. A few journalists had come under attack while covering the demonstrations that had taken place outside the Secretariat on Wednesday. A repeat of the incident sparked outrage among the media fraternity, prompting journalists to call off their coverage of the BJP agitation. Mediapersons took out a demonstration to the Secretariat under the aegis of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists in protest against the incident.
Despite assurances made by the police, inadequate security arrangements meant the commercial establishments remaining closed. While a group of traders had congregated at the Chalai bazaar to carry out business, the presence of only a handful of police personnel foiled their plans.
Stones were hurled at a convoy that accompanied a bus transporting employees to Technopark when they were passing by the 16th Mile, near Thonnakkal. Incidents of private vehicles being obstructed were reported in a few places, including Pazhavangady.
A luxury bus of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, which was headed for Thiruvananthapuram from Mysuru, was damaged in stone-throwing near Pallipuram along the National Highway 66 during the early hours of the day.
Several long-distance passengers faced great hardship owing to the lack of public transport.
The KSRTC decided against operating services after several of their buses came under attack in many places, including Neyyattinkara, Parassala, and Balaramapuram on Wednesday night.
Pathumma, a 64-year-old woman who hailed from Wayanad, died after collapsing at the Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station. She had come to Thiruvananthapuram for an appointment at the Regional Cancer Centre.
Four Congress workers were injured when a police vehicle piloting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan motorcade dashed against them in the vicinity of the Government Secretariat. The activists reportedly attempted to block the Chief Minister’s entourage and stage a black flag protest at Vanross Junction. The injured persons, identified as Rajeev, Vipin, Muneer, and Krishnakumar, were admitted to the General Hospital and the Government Medical College Hospital. The district remained edgy with various parties marshalling their cadres to hold demonstrations in protest against the attacks on their workers.
