TENSION prevailed in Mettupalayam and parts of the city on November 6 after unidentified persons attacked the RSS Coimbatore unit Karyavah Shri Anandan (36) with sickle and iron rods in the evening. Soon after the incident, miscreants set fire to a state-owned bus parked at the Mettupalayam bus stand and damaged the windshields of another bus. Fortunately, no passengers were on board. Fearing violence, traders downed shutters in the area. Members of the BJP, RSS and Hindu Munnani blocked the busy Mettupalayam Road near the roundabout for over three hours demanding the arrest of the assailants.
The motive for the attack is said to be the fallout of a clash over a minor dispute between members of two communities in the area on November 5. Senior police officers led by Coimbatore Superintendent of Police E S Uma stepped up surveillance and security measures to ensure that the issue did not snowball into a communal flare up. Preliminary reports said Shri Anandan, a manager at a car sales company on Annur Road, was returning home on his motorcycle around 6 pm when a gang attacked and injured him on his head, face, jaw and back near the Naduvur Bridge. The gang escaped under the cover of darkness owing to a power cut. Shri Anandan is recuperating at a private hospital on Mettupalayam Road in Coimbatore and was out of danger. Hundreds of RSS and BJP cadre thronged the hospital. “We are conducting enquiries to trace the assailants. The entire police force from the district has been mobilised to prevent further untoward incidents,” ES Uma, the SP, said.
(VSK, Chennai)
