The Kerala Police on Friday claimed that they had stopped the escalation of Sabarimala-related hartal violence. However, they admitted that there were still some hotspots of disquiet in Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Kannur, Kozhikode, Palakkad and Kasaragod districts.
Importantly, the police have moved for the mass arrest of those they suspect were responsible for the nearly two-day spree of violence that rocked Kerala following the entry of two women to Sabarimala early Wednesday. The police round-ups and detentions overwhelmingly targeted Sabarimala Karma Samathi (SKS), Hindu Aikya Vedi (HAD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers who had imposed a hartal on Kerala on Thursday.
They arrested 1,369 persons on charges of unlawful assembly, attack on officers, causing damage to public property, rioting, arson, inciting enmity between communities and illegal use of explosives. The arrests unfolded in a coordinated matter and involved night raids and searches, which caused tense stand-offs between officers and SKS supporters in several neighbourhoods.
Attack on bikes
A senior officer said the simmering violence boiled over early Friday with the rival political factions targeting each other’s houses and party offices.
It primarily involved unidentified persons on motorbikes vandalising houses and offices. Friday also saw an increase in incidents of arson, use of loud bangers and petrol bombs in a few cases.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the police have clamped prohibitory orders in Nedumangad and Valiyamala for three days. In Kattakada CPI(M) workers vandalised the house of BJP leader Shibu. In Malayinkeezhu, a police search party found three crude bombs hidden in a school building.
Pathanamthitta witnessed widespread tit-for-tat attacks on the houses of the leaders of the rival factions.
The funeral of Chandran Unnithan who was killed in stone-pelting on Wednesday was held at his residential courtyard at Kurampala, near Pandalam, on Friday afternoon.
Crude bomb hurled
The police said in Kannur, CPI(M) workers torched the local office of the BJP at Puthiyatheruvu. Tension prevailed at Thalassery after two houses belonging to CPI(M) and Sangh Parivar workers came under attack on Friday evening.
In Kozhikode, anonymous persons hurled a crude bomb at the house of Travancore Devaswom Board member K. Sasikumar. The police have imposed prohibitory orders for five days in the Vadakara and Perambra police station limits.
The police have declared a high alert in Thrissur and Palakkad districts. They have announced a curfew in Palakkad city and Manjeswaram and tense Chettukundu in Kasaragod till Sunday.