Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod (SP)

Kasargod, Apr 16: Kerala has been observing protest by way of hartal although this measure of protest has not been formally declared, condemning the incident in which an eight-year-old girl was raped and brutally murdered in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir. The strike has been total in the district, with buses and other vehicles having remained off the road today.

This hartal is being observed in the name of Janapara Samiti Kerala. Call for strike had been given trough messages and campaigns undertaken through social websites including WhatsApp. This call had given rise to confusion in the minds of the people. Still, vehicles including buses have not taken to streets since Monday April 16 morning. Shops and establishments remain closed. Tyres, boulders, branches of trees etc were seen to have been kept across the roads at a few places to obstruct traffic.

Stones were pelted at a KSRTC bus on Sunday night. Incidents in which vehicles were stopped from moving on national highway were reported from Manjeshwar, Nayammaramoole, Eriyal, Cherkala etc.

In the meanwhile, 25 persons who tried to block vehicular movement were arrested by the police. Since Sunday evening, messages announcing bandh on Monday wee circulated actively. The messages however, did not mention names of organizations or parties that had given this call. Even the police did not take these messages seriously.
In the morning, however, police took note of the situation arising out of sudden stopping of vehicular movement and blocking of some vehicles at some places. The police have since taken precautionary measures to see that no unsavoury incidents happen during the period of bandh.

The sudden strike created lot of problems for the common people. Those who did not know about the bandh call and reached towns and cities for various works are facing hardships as offices and shops are closed and vehicles are not moving. Passengers too faced lot of problems after a few vehicles and buses were blocked by sympathizers of the bandh call. A number of people who arrived by trains here today morning faced problems in reaching their homes or other destinations as no passenger vehicles were available.