Sporadic violence in Kasaragod; vehicles coming from Mangaluru Airport attacked

Kasaragod, Jan 3: Sporadic incidents of violence occurred in parts of Kasaragod district during the hartal on Thursday.

Around 20 shops in Kasaragod, Kanhangad, Manjeswaram and Kumbla were vandalised by hartal supporters. The police fired tear gas shells and stun grenades to disperse a mob at Kanhangad.

In anticipation of a tense situation, police officers asked traders not to open shops in Kasaragod town. Stones were pelted at shops near the new bus stand area at Kasaragod during a march taken out by BJP workers in support of the hartal.

Cameramen of TV channels were threatened by the marchers, who also forced the opened shops to down their shutters. The office of the Democratic Youth Federation of India at Neerchal in Badiadka was defaced with grease in the early hours.

The CPI(M) said the hartal supporters damaged the front door of the house of the party’s branch secretary at Battompara. The houses of two employees of the Kasaragod Service Cooperative Bank were attacked, it said.

At Neeleswaram, suspected CPI(M) workers vandalised an office of the BJP in the morning. At Bekal, a wreath and a letter with abusive words were found at the doorstep of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader K. Jayakumar at Kuttakkani in Pallikkara, near Bekal.

Two men on motorcycle hacked Ganesh (60), a former BJP councillor of Kasaragod, at Nullipady in the town.

In another incident a 29-year-old man was assaulted by the hartal supporters when he questioned them on burning tyres at Manjeswaram, the police said. The youth, identified as Imtiyaz, was attacked with iron rods and pipes at Gandhi Nagar on Thursday morning. He is admitted to hospital in Mangaluru with serious injuries in his hand.

Vehicles of a group of people coming from the Mangaluru airport to a hotel at Udma were vandalised by the hartal supporters at Karanthakkad. The passengers from Mumbai were on their way to attend a wedding in the hotel.