The murder on Monday of a local Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] functionary, allegedly by workers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), at Valankichal near Koothuparamba in Kannur has further vitiated the volatile situation in the district .
K. Mohanan (52) a member of the CPI(M)’s Paduvilayi local committee and party branch secretary in the area, was hacked to death inside a local toddy shop, where he was working, by a group of masked men. Another CPI(M) worker, Ashokan (40), was injured in the attack.
Police deployment and patrolling have been have strengthened in sensitive areas near site of the attack. No major incidents of violence were reported on Tuesday, police said.
The body of the party worker was received by party leaders at the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital after a post-mortem examination on Tuesday. It was taken in a procession from the Mahe bridge to his residence for cremation. A dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the CPI(M) in the district was near-total. Shops, commercial establishments and educational institutions remained closed and vehicles, especially buses, kept off the roads.
Trading charges
CPI(M) district secretary P. Jayarajan said that the “unprovoked and planned” murder was proof that the RSS was a terrorist organisation. Alleging that it was carried out with the knowledge of the RSS leadership, he said in a statement that it was the second murder of a CPI(M) worker to have occurred in Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s constituency of Dharmadam after the election.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) district president P. Sathyaprakashan, in a statement, demanded that the accused involved in the murder be immediately arrested by holding an unbiased probe.
Fifth political murder
The murder of Mohanan is the fifth political murder in the district since May 1, with three CPI(M) workers and two BJP-RSS workers having been killed in the past six months. In addition, a BJP worker was killed in an explosion while handling bombs kept in his house near Kathirur.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Tuesday alleged that the political violence perpetrated by the BJP and the RSS has become a major challenge to law and order in the State.
