Chennai: The violence that rocked Puratchi Thalivar MGR Maligai on Monday was on an unprecedented scale that it left the people of the busy residential-cum-commercial locality shocked though they had been used to the place getting crowded causing traffic snarls whenever something important happened at the AIADMK headquarters on Avvai Shanmugham Salai.
Right from the moment the van carrying O Panneerselvam approached the road at around 8.30 am, the situation turned tense and chaotic as stone pelting began. The handful of AIADMK cadre at the headquarters tried to resist the entry of Panneerselvam and his band of supporters into the premises.
But when the group of men accompanying Panneerselvam's convoy turned violent and started attacking them savagely, those offering resistance made a hasty retreat, letting the van drive into the premises without any obstacle but leaving several persons bruised, hurt and with bleeding injuries.
Leader of the Opposition Edapadi K Palaniswami, who later visited those who were hospitalized at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, said that the police did not take any action in protecting the party headquarters and the party cadre despite a complaint lodged in advance.
He said that though it was his supporters who bore the brunt of the vicious attack on the headquarters, the police had booked some of his supporters. More than 10 persons, including two police personnel, had suffered severe injuries and were admitted to hospital.
Palaniswami also alleged that the intruders took away loads of documents belonging to the party from the shelves and cupboards as they stormed into every room of the building with impunity.
Many persons with cut injuries on their heads, broken arms and bleeding toes got treated in the nearby hospitals and left home as those who barged into the party office were having a field day breaking anything they wanted.
Some live television images from the war zone were highly disturbing as they revealed bloodshed, brutal attacks with sticks, forced breaking of doors, random vandalism and meaningless smashing of vehicles without impunity.
A man in yellow shirt and white dhoti with AIADMK colours as border was ruthlessly beaten by a group of men armed with sticks till he almost lost his conscience and slumped on the road with several onlookers and police remaining spectators. Only after he fell down did a few police personnel and a woman rush to help him.
In another disturbing vignette, a young boy in jeans, armed with a stick, was seen smashing an expensive SUV by raining blows first on the rear windshield, then on the sides, and then in the front even as a few television cameras were recording the scene in close proximity.
Most of the men who indulged in vandalism did not look like regular AIADMK cadre in their behavior or demeanour or attire. Many of them were in jeans and white shirts and some in colourful shirts, too.
One man with his dhoti on his shoulders and struggling to tear off the face of Palaniswami alone from a poster with a stick inside the party office drove home the point that the savage attack was not political but personal and that the attackers themselves did not know what they were doing and for what.
The anger, animosity and hatred that were perceptible through the visuals was chilling as it was seemingly just a show of might and muscle power that one group was displaying.
