Strident criticism of "police failure" to protect the public during the violent Popular Front of India (PFI) hartal reverberated across the political spectrum for the second straight day on Friday.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called the violence pre-meditated guerilla-type attacks executed by masked and helmeted persons travelling on motorbikes. Mr. Vijayan urged the public to isolate mutually symbiotic minority and majority fundamentalist outfits that seek to divide society into communal lines for a political dividend.
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the sweeping arrests that unfolded across the State in the aftermath of the extensive violence as a belated response impelled by mounting public ire against the police for "mishandling" the "thuggish protests".
