Panic grips Kannur after twin killings

The Kannur region, Kerala’s political killing fields, once again slipped into horror and panic after a brief period of relative peace following the murder of a local CPI(M) leader and a RSS-BJP worker within the span of an hour late Monday night in Mahe, an enclave of Puducherry, and New Mahe within Kannur district. The RSS worker was hacked to death allegedly by a Marxist gang in an act of retaliation for the murder of the CPI(M) leader.

Tension prevailed in Mahe and several areas in Kannur throughout Tuesday even as normal life was thrown out of gear as the CPI(M) and BJP observed a 12-hour protest shutdown. The police tightened security in order to prevent the spread of violence but some BJP offices were attacked, a police vehicle was torched and shops were vandalised in Mahe in the evening.

The first incident took place at about 9.30 PM Monday when a gang attacked Kannipoyil Babu (45), CPI(M)’s local committee member and a former councilor of the Mahe Municipality, near a temple situated just a stone’s throw away from his house in Pallur, Mahe, an enclave of the Union Territory of  Puducherry, when he was returning home on his motorcycle.

Babu, who suffered deep hack wounds in his neck and abdomen, was rushed to a hospital in Thalassery but life could not be saved. The CPI(M) blamed the RSS-BJP for the murder. The police said that the attack on Babu was a carefully planned act in which eight persons had taken part and f our RSS workers have been named as accused.

RSS-BJP worker Shamej Parambath (36) of Peringadi, an autorikshaw driver, was attacked by a gang at about 10.15 PM Monday, within an hour of the attack on Babu, at Kallayi Angadi near the Kalagramam in New Mahe as he was returning home in his autorikshaw. Though Shamej was rushed to a hospital in Kozhikode, he succumbed to the hack injuries on the way.

The police informed that the murder of Shamej could have been an act of retaliation for the killing of Babu and said that all the assailants were local residents. Shamej became the victim of the Marxist act of retaliation despite the fact that he had not even known about the attack on Babu, the police indicated.

“Neither the BJP nor the Sangh Pariwar had any knowledge about the attack on Babu. Even then, they – the CPI(M) – murdered Shamej,” said P Sathyaprakash, BJP’s Kannur district president even as State party chief Kummanam Rajasekharan accused the CPI(M)-led LDF Government of failing totally in preventing political murders in Kannur region.

A vehicle of the Puducherry police was set ablaze allegedly by CPI(M) workers in Pallur on Tuesday evening when the body of Babu was brought there after postmortem and a BJP office in the area came under attack. A vegetable shop run by a CPI(M) worker was vandalized in New Mahe and the police used stun grenades to disperse protestors.

This is not the first time Kannur has witnessed such horrific acts of murder one after the other. In a similar incident on the night of July 11, 2016, CPI(M) worker CV Dhanaraj of Ramanthali in Payyannur was hacked to death when he was returning home and within an hour BMS leader Ramachandran was murdered in front of his house just a few kilometers away.

With panic returning to Kannur with Monday night’s twin murders after a brief lull in violence, residents of the region have, however, lost hope of peace dawning in the region any time soon. According to them, the latest incidents prove that the peace meets held after the murder of Youth Congress leader Shuhaib by CPI(M) killers in February have been a farce.

Condemning Monday’s killings, Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said he had instructed the State police chief, DGP Loknath Behera, to make all necessary security arrangements while Behera said he had sounded alert for his officers to ensure violence did not spread. “We will take stringent action. We won’t consider political affiliations,” he said.

That the incidents have occurred just when the State is to witness a crucial Assembly by-election on May 28 in Chengannur constituency in Alappuzha district has caused much embarrassment in both the CPI(M) and BJP camps. Congress leaders have already indicated that the issue of political violence in Kannur will be discussed in detail in Chengannur.

“These murders have proved that the Chief Minister, who holds the Home portfolio, is a big zero and the State police chief is worth not even a penny,” said Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress even as senior Congress leader VM Sudheeran said, “Political violence will cease only if the Marxist leaders who plot such acts are caught.”