MALAPPURAM: An accident involving a bus and a motorbike at Palathara near Kottakkal led to a mob attack on the bus and the nearby office of the Mathrubhumi daily and a few of its staff members on Tuesday. The speeding Kozhikode-Guruvayur bus hit a motorbike injuring two at 11 a.m. when the bus tried to avert a collision with a car which turned to the wrong side of the road without showing signal.
The motorcycle was coming from the opposite side. The injured motorcyclist and the driver of the bus were rushed to a nearby hospital and one of them was later shifted to Kozhikode Medical College. A mob, including nearby residents, gathered at the spot and hurled stones at the bus and smashed its window panes and blocked the traffic on NH 66 for three hours.
The policemen from Kottakkal, Kalpakancheri and Kadampuzha stations reached the spot and dispersed the protesters. The police booked a case against the bus driver. Some persons also vandalized the office of the Mathrubhumi Malappuram unit nearby and attacked four staff members alleging that a photographer had tried to take the picture of the stoning of the bus.
The glass panes of the front part of the newspaper office, furniture and a car of the staff were vandalized in the attack. Four attackers were identified and they will be arrested soon, said the police. Repeated road accidents in the area have claimed three lives in four days.
