The police have tightened security in the district in view of three anniversaries, including those of the Marad killings and the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T.P. Chandrasekharan, falling next week. The anniversary of the police firing in Onchiyam on April 30, 1948, in which 10 persons were killed, will also be observed next week.
G. Sparjankumar, Commissioner of Police, Kozhikode city, said that the Marad and Beypore police stations had worked out a security scheme in the communally sensitive coastal region. Already a control room with a posse of police personnel, led by an officer in the rank of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, was monitoring the situation in Marad. Nine fishermen were killed at Marad village on May 2, 2003. Outfits such as the Hindu Aikya Vedi attached to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have been demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the killings.
The Vedi plans to stage a hunger strike, led by its State general secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan, at Marad on April 29. Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy will inaugurate the district-level commemoration meeting to be held at Muthalakkulam Maidan in the city on May 2.
Prohibitory orders
The Rural police have clamped prohibitory orders for 10 days from Saturday in four panchayats — Onchiyam, Chorodu, Eramala, and Edacherry — in the district. Regulations would be in force till May 6.
T.K. Rajmohan, Superintendent of Police, Kozhikode Rural, said that the police had invoked Sections 78 and 79 of the Kerala Police Act, 2011, as a preventive measure. Notifications had been issued for regulating carrying of arms, coercive substance, symbols, and placards or offences against normal standards of public morality. Rally or assembly would be permitted only at specified places or routes after obtaining permission from the police, he said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] will organise the Onchiyam martyrs’ day on April 30 (Monday). The Communist Party of India will arrange a separate event to mark the anniversary. Programmes will be held at the Onchiyam Martyrs’ Square which was erected as a tribute to those who died in the 1948 police firing at Onchiyam.
RMP’s programmes
RMP, the dissident outfit formed by Chandrasekharan, is planning a series of programmes on the anniversary of the murder of Chandrasekharan on May 4. Regulations have been imposed following intelligence inputs about the growing hostilities between the RMP and CPI(M) in Vadakara and vicinity. Notices have been served on political parties to remove posters with provocative content.
