Congress workers forcibly close shops in Kozhikode city during hartal

Some of the Congress workers were seen asking the crew in private buses as well as those operated by the Kerala State Road Service Corporation to stop the services.

Congress workers forcibly closed shops and engaged in altercations with the police in Kozhikode city on Sunday (November 17, 2024) as the hartal called by the party in the district in protest against the alleged anti-democratic practices adopted by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) {CPI(M)] and “the police inaction” in response to it during the election to the administrative body of the Chevayur Service Cooperative Bank on Saturday.

Though some of the shops were open and buses were plying on the roads normally in the morning hours, the situation changed subsequently as Youth Congress workers objected to it. Some of the workers were seen asking the crew in private buses as well as those operated by the Kerala State Road Service Corporation to stop the services. They tried to block buses coming out from both the KSRTC bus station and the moffusil bus stand. This also led to arguments between the private bus crew and the party workers.

Later, the premises of the moffusil bus stand witnessed tense moments after a protest march taken out by the District Congress Committee (DCC), led by DCC president K. Praveenkumar, reached there. The party workers forced the few stationary shops and others that were open in the bus stand shopping complex to down their shutters. They also raised slogans against the police asking what were they doing when illegal methods were adopted during the bank election the previous day.

Meanwhile, there are reports about the police taking into custody at least six Youth Congress workers after they blocked bus services at Kallachi near Nadapuram in the district.