Sporadic violence marks hartal day in Kasargod

Kasargod: The district witnessed stone pelting by protesters and the police confronting them with cane charge and grenade during the BJP hartal on Tuesday.

It was total barring a few shops and establishments functioning at Cheruvathur and peaceful except in Kasargod town.

BJP supporters forcibly shut down banks and shops which caused tiff between hartal supporters and others there.

Stone pelting was reported against CPM local committee office in Kasargod in the morning forcing police to resort to lathi charge.

A procession of BJP workers shut down the Kasargod service cooperative bank and then they ran up to ‘Deshabhimani’ office. Police intervened and used the grenade to disperse the crowd. In the melee, a civil police officer of Kasargod town sustained injury.

The attempt to forcibly close shops triggered altercation in Choori around noon. The tiff was followed by stone pelting from both sides and police too had to face the ire.

A vehicle of bomb squad transporting government employees from railway station to collectorate was blocked by hartal supporters at Karanthakad. Adamant hartal supporters did not permit police to proceed with the vehicle. They attacked three cars and a motorbike. Speaking at a press conference, BJP state general secretary K. Surendran said that hartal was a great victory against CPM’s intolerant and politics of violence.

“BJP will carry out many programmes in CPM strongholds including Cheemeni,” he said.

The hartal was called in protest against the police taking into custody BJP leaders at Cheruvathur on Monday following BJP-CPM clash.