THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UDF has called for a statewide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Thursday in protest against the forcible eviction of Mahija, mother of Jishnu Pranoy, the engineering student who was found dead in his college hostel.
Malappuram district, which is in the midst of a Lok Sabha bypoll campaign, has been exempted.
BJP also has announced a hartal in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, the home district of Jishnu. The untoward incidents in front of the state police headquarters occurred on the day the state government was celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first elected Communist government led by E M S Namboodiripad.
UDF boycotted the diamond jubilee fete. Former Congress chief ministers A K Antony and Oommen Chandy and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala kept away from the function held on Wednesday evening.
The police action attracted criticism from the Left camp also, with CPM veteran V S Achuthanandan and CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran condemning the incident.