The murder of a local functionary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] by alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers at Valankichal, near Koothuparamba, here on Monday has further vitiated the volatile situation prevailing in parts of the district over the past few months.
K. Mohanan, 52, CPI(M)’s Paduvilayi local committee member and party branch secretary in the area, was hacked to death inside a local toddy shop where he was working. Another CPI(M) worker, identified as Ashokan, 40, suffered injuries in the attack. The attack was carried out allegedly by a group of masked men.
The body of the deceased party worker was received by party leaders at the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital after post-mortem examination on Tuesday.
The body 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 in protest against the killing 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 is a proof that the RSS is 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.
Grim statistics
The murder of Mohanan is the fifth political murder that the district has witnessed since May 1, when the law and order situation in parts of the district saw escalation.
The murdered during the period include three CPI(M) workers and two BJP-RSS workers.
In addition to this, a BJP worker had died in a bomb explosion near Kathirur while handling bombs kept in his house. With the latest murder, this year’s death toll in political violence in the district so far rose to six, three each CPI(M) and BJP-RSS workers.
The police have strengthened patrolling and deployment in sensitive areas near the place of murder in view of the tense situation. No major incidents of violence were reported on Tuesday, they said.
Kodiyeri charge
Meanwhile, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Tuesday alleged that the political violence perpetrated by the BJP and the RSS, under the shade of its control over the Central government, has become a major challenge to law and order in the State.
He alleged that the BJP-RSS combine was responsible for the murders of five CPI(M) activists in Kannur in the last four months.
In the last two weeks attempts were made on the lives of four CPI (M) workers in the district, he said.CPI(M) worker’s murder escalates tension
CPI(M) worker’s murder vitiates volatile situation prevailing in parts
of the district
