VSK TN
By Express News Service – COIMBATORE
07th November 2012 08:47 AM
Tension prevailed in Mettupalayam and parts of the city on Tuesday after unidentified persons attacked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) Coimbatore unit general secretary 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.
Till late evening, police were trying to pacify the agitators to clear the road.
Though the motive for the attack was being probed, it appeared to be a fallout of a clash over a minor dispute between members of two communities in the area on Monday.
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 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 due to a power cut.
Anandan was 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,” Uma said.
Though the motive for the attack was being probed, it appeared to be a fallout of a clash over a minor dispute between members of two communities in the area on Monday.
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 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 due to a power cut.
Anandan was 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,” Uma said.