The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State unit is yet again making a serious bid to flag the political violence in Kannur at the national level by demanding to invoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the strife-torn areas of the district.
A party delegation, led by lone party MLA and national executive member O. Rajagopal, met Governor P. Sathasivam on Saturday and urged him to declare the violence-affected zones of Kannur as `disturbed’ and invoke AFSPA to contain such incidents in the district.
The memorandum said the Sangh Parivar had lost its 14 core workers in the State since Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assumed office in May last. As many as 13 BJP and RSS workers were killed by CPI(M) workers, the memorandum said.
“More than 500 attacks were carried out and hundreds of our karyakarthas (office-bearers) were critically injured and their property worth lakhs (of rupees) destroyed,” it said.
The BJP alleged that its workers were targeted in Kottayam on May 11 and the attack on Biju at Payyannur in Kannur on Friday was the latest in the series. It accused the State government of abetting such incidents.
A Raj Bhavan communique said that Mr. Sathasivam had forwarded the memorandum to the Chief Minister asking to take immediate action to contain violence so as to send a positive signal to the people of the State.
Following a spate of violent incidents involving the BJP and the CPI(M) in Kannur, a peace meeting was held at the behest of the government, and leaders of rival sides resolved to take steps to end such incidents.
