BJP hartal in city today

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the capital on Friday in protest against the alleged attack on party activists by the police and the CPI(M).

State president P.K. Krishnadas told reporters here on Thursday that BJP activists who took out a march to the Deputy Director of Education Office in Alappuzha and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists who were observing a satyagraha against the government’s policies were targeted by the police and the CPI(M) activists without any provocation.

A number of party activists, including Thiruvananthapuram district president C. Sivankutty, were hurt in the attacks and hospitalised.

The party would observe protest day all over the State on Friday, he said.

Mr. Krishnadas accused the police of abetting the DYFI activists to attack the BJP.

The government was trying to muffle the protests of the Opposition and gag the media.

The attacks were part of a conspiracy hatched by the CPI(M).

The BJP would intensify the agitation till the government withdrew the controversial social studies textbook. All essential services would be exempted from the hartal, he said.