KASARGOD: The BJP’s hartal in the district saw sporadic violence in Kasargod town forcing police to fire teargas shells and cane vandals. It was uneventful in the rest of the district, even as Cheruvathur, a CPM bastion, defied the shutdown. The BJP called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal on Tuesday to protest against alleged lack of political freedom and violence perpetrated by the CPM in Kasargod.
Around 10.30 am, BJP activists, led by state vice-president K P Sreeshan, took out a procession in Kasargod town. They waylaid the police bus with government employees.
Though police tried to negotiate with them, the vehicle was not allowed to pass. Private vehicles too were stopped, and stones were thrown at a few of them, shattering their windshields, forcing police to fire teargas shells and cane the protesters. One BJP worker was seriously injured, and was taken to a hospital in Mangaluru, said party activists.
As the procession circumambulated the town, the protesters forced all the banks on the way to down the shutters. Stones were thrown at CPM’s local committee office on MG Road, Indian Coffee House, and a CPM-controlled Kasargod Service Cooperative Bank, forcing it to down shutter. Stones were thrown also at a medical laboratory, breaking its front glass at Pilikkunnu. The billboards set up by other political parties were also taken down. Protesters waylaid a motorcyclist and the two-wheeler’s fuel tank was smashed with a laterite stone.