Ayyankali Pada ransacks KSEB office

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, MARCH 24. To protest the visit of the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton a four-member group, said to be belonging to the Ayyankali Pada, ransacked the KSEB executive engineer's office at Kothamangalam today.

The action against the office where the sub-divisional office of the KSEB's World Bank Project functioned earlier is said to be a token attack on `American imperialism and World Bank-sponsored privatisation and globalisation'.

The attack took place at 9.30 a.m. when only a woman sweeper was present in the office. The group reportedly told the sweeper that it was part of the Ayyankali Pada and that it was going to burn the files and furniture. The young men then damaged a few pieces of furniture and snapped the telephone. Some files were carried outside and burned on the office compound. No major damage was caused to the office. The youth later marched out raising slogans against Mr. Clinton and hailing the Ayyankali Pada.

Though no member of the group could be nabbed, the police arrested Mr. Ajayan, who is the first accused in the hostage drama at the Palakkad Collectorate three years ago, for alleged conspiracy and abetment to the crime.

Mr. Henry Johnson, Muvattupuzha Dy. SP, told TheHindu that cases under the Prevention of Destruction of Public Properties Act have been registered against the group. They would be charged with trespass and arson.

A statement issued in the name of the Ayyankali Pada said there was no point in just protesting the visit of Mr. Clinton who was `robbing the world, suppressing the peoples with wars and sucking the blood of the people'.

``We are burning the files of the Kothamangalam office which is one of the World Bank offices where the KSEB's decisions to rob the people are being taken.''

The Ayyankali Pada signed off the statement with a call to rebel against the ``colonialist murderer Clinton and his Indian establishment''.

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