Normal life came to a standstill in Kanyakumari district on Monday following a hartal call by the BJP. The shutdown was to protest the unprecedented series of attacks on party leaders in the district allegedly by Islamic fundamentalists. MR Gandhi, the 68-year-old executive committee member of Tamil Nadu BJP was attacked on Sunday by two unidentified youth with a sharp weapon while he was on his morning walk.
A seriously injured Gandhi was admitted to a private hospital where he is recuperating now. Gandhi was a popular leader of the party and had contested the 2011 Assembly election from Kanyakumari constituency where he lost narrowly.
Pon Radhakrishnan, president, Tamil Nadu BJP, said that four BJP leaders had been attacked during the last three months with two of them losing their lives.
“We have been seeing a pattern in these attacks. The popular leaders of the party are being selectively targeted. The sad thing is that nobody has been arrested in these cases,” he said. According to Radhakrishnan, Kanyakumari has become a safe haven for Islamic extremists.
Friday saw the four western districts of Coimbator, Erode, Nilgiris and Tirupur observing a day’s hartal called by various Hindu organisations to protest against a series of attacks on community leaders who questioned the love jihads and forcible religious conversion. Monks of various Hindu Mutts too had joined the Friday hartal.