On the initiative of District Collector T. Mithra, an all-party peace talk was held at the Collector’s Chamber on Monday with the aim of maintaining peace in the district in the wake of the death of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who succumbed to his injuries sustained in an attack, allegedly by CPI(M) activists on February 2.
However representatives of the BJP did not attend the meeting. The meeting noted that the incident was a fallout of a dispute in connection with a temple festival at Kadakkal. The Collector appealed to the representatives of the political parties to support the peace initiatives.
District secretary of the CPI(M) K.N. Balagopal said peace can be maintained only if the people concerned ensured that local issues that triggered violence did not get politicised. He said of late there had been a spate of violent incidents linked to disputes over temple issues. He called upon the police to make strong intervention in such disputes as a preventive measure against violence.
Violence decried
CPI district secretary N. Anirudhan condemned the violence at Kadakkal and DCC president Bindu Krishna thanked the Collector for initiating the peace talks. Superintendent of Police (Kollam Rural) S. Surendran told the meeting that the police had taken all measures to ensure that there was no breach of peace in connection with the incident.
He said six persons had been arrested in connection with the murder and four others were taken into custody on the charge of creating trouble in the area after the death of the BJP leader. Cases had also been registered against those responsible for destroying public property during the BJP-called hartal on Sunday. The meeting decided to convene an all-party meeting to ensure peace at the local level too, at Kadakkal.
