The murder of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker at Andalur, under the Dharmadam police station limits on Wednesday night, renewed tension in the area ending three months of relative peace.
BJP worker C.E. Santhosh, 52, was hacked to death by alleged Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers inside his house at Andalur around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. While the BJP alleged that the CPI(M) was behind the attack, the CPI(M) local leadership denied involvement of party workers in the attack. The police said an unidentified group barged into Santhosh’s house where he was staying alone. His wife, two children and mother were staying in another house, the police said. He suffered multiple stab injuries in his legs.
The murder is the first incident of political killing this year and it is the third to take place in the Chief Minister’s constituency of Dharmadam over the past three months. In October, CPI(M) worker K. Mohanan, and BJP worker K.V. Remith were hacked to death in the area in tit-for-tat attacks.
A stand-off between BJP workers and the police in the afternoon lasted for nearly two hours as BJP workers with a convoy of vehicles accompanying the ambulance carrying the body of the slain BJP worker staged a sit-in on the road near the old bus stand here in protest against the police’s refusal to allow the convoy to pass through the Stadium Road where the Kerala State School Arts Festival venues are located.
The stand-off ended when District Collector Mir Mohammed Ali reached the spot and proposed to the BJP-RSS leadership that a limited number of vehicles would be allowed through the road. The same spot also witnessed tension in the morning when BJP workers tried to march through the road. The police used smoke grenades to disperse the workers who hurled stones at nearby building of the NGO Union.
Though the hartal and the ensuing protest by BJP workers here threatened to mar the festive ambiance in the city, the events at the venues of the Kerala State School Arts Festival were not affected. The fete was exempted from the hartal. But lack of buses and other public transport vehicles on the road caused some inconvenience to the public.
Taliparamba also witnessed tension in the morning when a Centre of India Trade Unions office and a Rashtirya Swayamsevak Sangh office were attacked by rival party workers.
