Kasargod limps back to normal after two-day long hartal

Isolated incidents of violence and attacks on police personnel were reported during the day-long hartal called by the Opposition Left Democratic Front in the district on Friday in protest against what it termed the killing of Democratic Youth Federation of India activist T. Manoj at Thachangad, near Kanhangad, during Thursday's dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in protest against the arrest of party Kannur district unit secretary P. Jayarajan in connection with the Abdul Shukkoor murder case.

Although no major violent incidents were reported with the authorities promulgating prohibitory orders for two days under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, two personnel from the strike force of the Inspector-General of Police were injured in stone throwing after they tried to prevent a group of suspected CPI(M) activists from blocking the State Highway at Palakunnu, near Uduma. A mandalam committee office of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on the railway station road at Kanhangad was vandalised by suspected CPI(M) activists on Thursday night, the police said. The miscreants broke into the office and destroyed furniture.

The IUML offices at Arayi and Kolavayal, near Kanhangad, were also targeted by miscreants, and furniture destroyed in the night, the police said. An IUML office at Kallangai in Mogral-Puthur village and a CPI(M) office at Nullipadi in Kasaragod came under attack from miscreants who smashed the windowpanes of the buildings. Another IUML office at Kolathur and a Pilicode branch of the Cheruvathur Farmers' Cooperative Bank were also attacked on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, the body of Manoj that was sent to the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, for the post-mortem examination returned late on Friday night. The body will be kept at the CPI(M) office at Pallikara, near Neeleswaram. It will be cremated in the compound of Manoj's house.

Hartal cripples life

A cross-section of society bore the brunt of the two-day shutdown of business establishments and civic services owing to the hartal.

With banks downing their shutters for two days in the first week of the month, Thursday and Friday, hundreds of customers were put to hardship.

Traders, who anticipated hectic activities ahead of the Ramadan and Onam season, lost business of lakhs of rupees.

The worst hit were the traders of vegetables, fruits and other perishable goods, as the unexpected hartal call caused them a huge financial loss.

A wholesale vegetable merchant based in Kanhangad said on Friday that he stood to lose Rs.50,000 as a truckload of perishable vegetables brought from Karnataka were stored in the godown..”Most of the fresh vegetables would have become rotten. I have no option but to dump them elsewhere,” the 48-year old merchant said on condition of anonymity.

“I received phone calls from my retail vegetable customers seeking a discount as they could not trade their commodities. I will suffer additional loss on that count,” he said.

Similar is the plight of hundreds of traders engaged in fruit, fish, meat and other perishable goods, he said.