KOZHIKODE: Kozhikode turned into a battlefield on Friday with the activists of the CPM and the BJP unleashing a spate of attacks and counter-attacks on each others’ party offices in various parts of the district right from Thursday evening.
The BJP has called a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district on Saturday while the CPM’s hartal on Friday witnessed violence in various parts of the district. The BJP has called the hartal protesting against the attack on BMS and RSS offices in the district allegedly by CPM workers.
On Friday, the CPM called the hartal in Kozhikode district to protest against the attack on its district office while the BJP called a hartal in five Assembly constituencies- Vadakara, Koyilandy, Kuttiyadi, Nadapuram and Perambra -protesting against the attack on the RSS office at Vadakara on Thursday night.
In the early hours of Friday unidentified persons hurled bombs at the CPM district headquarters - C H Kanaran Memorial Building-in the city. The incident took place around 1.15 am when CPM district secretary P Mohanan was entering the party office after visiting the CPM office in Feroke which was attacked by alleged BJP workers. The steel bombs exploded with loud noise but the district secretary escaped unhurt.
“I was about to enter the office when the bombs exploded. The BJP has unleashed a reign of terror in the state. The CPM will strongly protest against these attacks,” said Mohanan.
CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, who visited the CPM office, said the attack was an attempt to silence the political opponents of the BJP and the RSS. “The Left parties will not tolerate such attacks and will fight the fascist forces together,” he said.
Meanwhile, the protest march taken out by CPM workers against the attack on the district headquarters turned violent when they started pelting stones at shops and banks in Palayam and forced the motorists to stay off the road. The protestors attacked news photographers who were covering the hartal at Palayam.