17 KSRTC buses attacked during LDF hartal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Hartal supporters attacked 17 KSRTC buses in various parts of the district resulting in injuries to three bus drivers and a passenger in the hartal called by the LDF on Saturday. A KSEB electrical section office was also attacked resulting in injuries to one lineman. Normal life was affected in the district with shops and establishments remaining closed and KSRTC discontinuing  services on the advice of the police by 10.30 a.m. Some autorickshaw and taxi drivers who plied their vehicles on Saturday morning also curtailed services after the attacks on KSRTC buses. Private vehicles were on the roads, and, barring a few incidents were left alone by hartal supporters.  The LDF had called the dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district in protest against the police action against DYFI-SFI activists in the city on Friday.In all, 17 KSRTC buses were attacked at locations including Vattiyoorkavu, Karackamandapam, Akkulam, Pangappara, Ulloor (two buses), Kesavadasapuram, Parassala (two buses), Mangalapuram, Kazhakootam, Varkala and Murinjapalam.The driver of the Ponnani-Thiruvananthpuram service Habeeb Rahman sustained injuries on the head following an attack near Venjaramoodu. Drivers K P Sadiq of Vikas Bhavan depot and C Vijayakumar of the Vizhinjam depot were hurt in separate attacks. Their injuries were not serious, KSRTC officials said.In another attack, a young passenger also was hurt in the stone pelting. In most of the cases, the windshields of the buses were shattered. KSRTC did not press its Volvo buses into service on Saturday.‘’We started 25 regular services at 6 a.m., but by 10-10.30 a.m., we stopped them on the advice of the police. Many of the buses that were stranded were safely removed to the nearest depots in convoys or under police protection,’’ District Transport Officer Vijayakumar said. The KSEB electrical section office at Peyad was attacked in the morning, in which a lineman was injured.  The police said cases have been registered and investigation was on into the attacks. Save for the attacks on KSRTC buses, urban and rural Thiruvananthapuram witnessed few violent incidents, said City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham and Rural SP A Akbar. No arrests have been effected so far, they said.‘SUSPEND MEENA’ Meanwhile, inaugurating an LDF sit-in before the Secretariat, CPM district secretary Kadakampally Surendran demanded an investigation into Friday’s police action by suspending DCP Rajpal Meena. Saturday’s hartal was a ‘’natural public response’’ to police brutality, he said.  He also criticised the police for entering the University College and attacking students.