Kerala anti-CAA hartal: Normalcy marred by stray incidents of violence

Incidents of stone throwing on state-run KSRTC buses have been reported from various parts of Kerala as the dawn-to-dusk hartal called against the Citizenship Amendment Act and police action on students of Jamia university in Delhi, began on Tuesday. Over 70 persons have been reported to be detained in Kerala. 

Private buses kept off roads as incidents of stone-pelting were reported from some parts of Kerala. However, KSRTC, four-wheelers, including cabs, and autorickshaws were seen plying in the state capital and Kochi, while in north Kerala, especially Kannur and Kozhikode, roads wore a deserted look in the early hours of the stir.

A group of 30 Islamic and political outfits have called the hartal from which major political parties, including the ruling CPI(M) and the opposition Congress and IUML are keeping away. The shutdown has been called by small political parties, which do not have any representation in the Kerala Assembly. 

Meanwhile, the Joint Action Council exhorted the people to cooperate with the hartal by boycotting travel and downing shutters of shops.

Leader of one of the protesting outfits, Porattam, M.N. Ravunni said in Palakkad that the provision of giving a prior notice of seven days

cannot be followed. Several prominent social outfits and political parties have said that they would not back the hartal.

General secretary of the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, and IUML leader P. K. Kunhalikutty too said that Tuesday's hartal was needless.

Stone throwing incidents on KSRTC buses have been reported from Peroorkada in the capital city, Palakkad, Wayanad, Kozhikode and Aluva in Kochi.

Demonstrations were also taken out by the hartal supporters in many places.

In Palakkad, around 120 people have been either arrested or taken into preventive custody till 9 am, said SP Siva Vikram. "Around 50-70 people have been taken into preventive custody so far and the remaining were arrested," he said.

A state owned bus coming from Velankanni in Tamil Nadu was stoned at Walayar at around 3 am, he said. In Kannur, the activists took out a procession on the National Highway and were arrested and removed by police.

Two women activists, who squatted on the road in Kannur shouted "Inquilab Zindabad" and "Down with CAA", as police removed them. Referring to police action on Jamia students, they said "those are our children. You should also support us".

Police chased away pro hartal activists in Palakkad as they forcibly tried to close down shops and prevented vehicles from plying. In Aluva in Kochi, several vehicles were blocked and stones hurled at buses. A KSRTC bus on its way to Munnar from Thiruvananthapuram was stoned at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam.

State DGP Loknath Behara has made it clear that the hartal was illegal as no prior permission had been taken for its conduct which was necessary as per a High Court direction.

The high court has specifically given a direction that the notice for hartal should be given at least seven days before in order to avoid difficulties to the public. They have not done that.

Action will be taken against the organisers if they forcibly shutdown shops and cause incovenience to the public, he said. 

Exams

School and university examinations scheduled for Tuesday have not been postponed. Shops and business establishments were open in various places. The Kannur, Calicut, Mahatma Gandhi, CUSAT, AgriculturalVeterinary, Technical and Central universities have said that there would not be any change in the exams. 

Only in Kerala University, PhD course work (Paper 1, Research Methodology) and third semester MSc (CSS) exams have been postponed. There are, however, no changes in other exams of the university. The General Education Department has said that there would not be any change in the school exams.

Most of the educational institutions were functioning, barring a few colleges that have decided to be shut on Tuesday owing to the hartal. 

(With inputs from PTI, Onmanorama)