Kannur on boil over Sabarimala row

Thiruvananthapuram/Kannur, January 5

Violence involving BJP-RSS and ruling CPM workers rocked politically volatile Kannur district in north Kerala today with a number of houses and shops of rival leaders and workers being attacked over the Sabarimala issue.

Bombs were hurled at several places, including at the houses of CPM MLA AN Shamseer in Madapeedikayil, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan at Vadiyil Peedikia and former Kannur district secretary of CPM P Sasi at Thalassery past midnight, the police said.

No one was injured in the attacks. The BJP MP’s ancestral house was attacked hours after bombs were thrown at the houses of Shamseer and Sasi while leaders of the Marxist party and BJP-RSS were attending a peace meeting here.

Kerala has been rocked by violent protests by BJP-RSS and right wing outfits after two women of menstruating age offered prayers at the Lord Ayyappa temple on January 2.

Besides Kannur, Perambra in neighbouring Kozhikode, Malappuram and Adoor in Pathanamthitta, where the Ayyappa shrine is located, also witnessed a series of similar attacks and vandalism Friday night and in the early hours of Saturday.

State police chief Loknath Behera has sounded a state-wide alert and ordered stern action against those responsible for the attacks on the houses of party leaders.

A total of 260 persons have been arrested so far in connection with the Kannur violence in the last two days. 

In another incident, unidentified miscreants set on fire RSS office in the Pariyaram area this morning. A CPM worker was attacked at Perumbara in Iritty in the district last night while RSS leader K Chandrasekharan was assaulted in Thalassery and his house ransacked allegedly by a group of around 25 Marxist workers. — PTI