Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 23: Violence erupted in various parts of the country, vehicles vandalised, buses stoned and in some places local people beat up the hooligans and handed over to the police during the 12-hours of “bandh” call given by the Popular Front of India (PFI) in protest against the National Investigation Agency (NIA) actions against the organisation.
Supporters of the flash strike took out protest marches across the country, burnt tyres on roads, blocked vehicles and forcefully downed shutters of shops. Particularly in Kerala, gangs with faces covered unleashed violence and attacked shops in Kozhikode, Kottayam and Ernakulam districts.
The PFI’s strike ended at 6 pm with over 500 of their members arrested across the country, several police officers were injured and a petrol bomb was hurled at the RSS office in Mattannur in Kerala while war of words broke out between political parties over the PFI agitation with the BJP accusing the Congress of “halting” the on-going “Bharat Jodo Yatra” in response to the PFI call and the Congress retorting pointing out the day’s break was “pre-decided” routine “weekly break.”
As many as 500 people were arrested and 400 others put under preventive detention in Kerala. Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), law and order, Vijay Sakhare said “500 people have been arrested and 400 more have been put under preventive detention in connection with the hartal called by the PFI.” “In another case, two persons on motorcycle with a bomb were arrested. Three more people were arrested later. All the five have been arrested. Currently, the situation is normal and under control,” Sakhare added.
In Pune, more than 35 PFI members were detained for protesting outside the Pune district collectorate against the nationwide raids on the outfit. In Bengaluru 14 people were arrested on charges of sedition. In a statement, the Bengaluru city police said the 14 people were booked at Kadugondanahalli police station under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including that on waging a war against the country. While two persons were from Bengaluru, the remaining 12 are from various parts of Karnataka. They will be produced before a magistrate, the police said. Similarly, in Udupi, police booked 11 PFI activists under the charges of staging a road blockade.
Kerala State Road Transport buses, freight lorries and airport vehicles were widely attacked and pelted with stones across the state. Even an ambulance was not spared in Thrissur district. At least 50 KSRTC buses were damaged with their windscreens smashed and seats damaged. Over 10 of its employees suffered injuries in the stone-pelting and related incidents, official sources said.
The KSRTC management put out a Facebook post against the attack on its buses, and the drivers could be seen plying the vehicles wearing helmets in many places to escape from the stone-pelting. Besides KSRTC employees, police personnel, some bus and lorry drivers and commuters suffered injuries in various incidents.
In Erattupetta town of Kottayam district, police had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse activists when they tried to block vehicles after gathering in large numbers, closed the shops and threatened the people who were travelling in private vehicles. A PFI sympathiser allegedly hit two police personnel, who were on patrol duty, with his motorcycle when they tried to stop him from abusing commuters at Pallimukku in Kollam.
Though he managed to escape from the spot, a manhunt is on to nab him, police said.
A lottery shop, kept open at Sankranthi Kavala in Kottayam, was destroyed by miscreants while some freight lorries, which were on their way from Mangaluru, were stopped and their keys snatched away by them on a national highway in Kannur which blocked traffic in the area.
Local media reported that a petrol bomb was hurled at a vehicle which was carrying newspapers for distribution at Narayanpara and a country-made bomb was thrown at a local BJP office in Mattannoor by unidentified persons- both in Kannur district.
A 15-year-old girl and an auto-rickshaw driver suffered minor injuries in the stone-pelting allegedly by PFI activists in Kozhikode and Kannur respectively. A lorry driver, who was on his way to Erode in Tamil Nadu, suffered severe injuries on his nose and eyes in Kozhikode owing to the stone-pelting “They attacked us deliberately with an intention to destroy the lorry. The vehicle was parked on the roadside when they came and attacked it,” the driver said.
In Kannur, a group of PFI activists were beaten up by local people when they tried to forcefully down the shutters of shops. One of them was handed over to the police at the Central Bazar in Payyannur.