Mangaluru: The Coast to Coast Outreach Programme of Indian Navy ran in to rough weather on day one of their Kerala leg at Kasargod on Tuesday. Bailing them out from a tough situation were the Kerala police, who took the 15-member team astride their Mahindra XUV 500s safely out of Kasargod which saw a hartal. But all this was not without a sense of drama and the team was forced to seek refuge in the safety of CPCRI guest house at Kasargod.The team headed by Commander M K Sharma, that is on a mission to spread the word about Indian Navy and its activities as well as career opportunities to mark the platinum jubilee of INS Valsura, premier training establishment of the Navy, had to contend with a major law and order situation at Kasargod, some 60-km from here. The murder of a Muslim cleric in Kasargod saw the local Muslim League there give call for a day long hartal.The Indian Navy team that set out from the city in the early hours for a meeting with the students of government higher secondary school at Kanhangad found themselves staring at a hostile crowd in the city. With local police busy handling the fall out of the murder and not able to render immediate assistance, they turned to Lokanath Behera, Kerala police chief for help. In the meanwhile, the team made their way to CPCRI guest house as their onward journey was not safe.Cdr Hari Parameshwaran, PRO of the team, told TOI though the people were really agitated, they were really nice to the team, after coming to know they were from the Navy. They warned us not to venture ahead unescorted for groups were throwing stones at vehicles. "We could see huge rocks rain down on road from hill tops straddling the NH and an auto rickshaw driver being beaten up after a mob overturned his vehicle," he added underscoring the gravity of the situation.It was only towards the evening that the assistance assured by Behera reached them at CPCRI guest house from where they could move forward with police control room vehicle leading their convoy out from the trouble zone. The team presented their escorts with souvenirs to show their appreciation and headed for the Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala near Payannur. "Behera has assured us protection in areas that could still be volatile due to the incident," he said.

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