In a fresh bout of what is thought to be a reprisal killing in the politically volatile Kannur district in Kerala, a BJP activist was hacked to death in broad daylight in Pinarayi town on Wednesday.
This came less than two days after assailants had eliminated a rival CPI(M) branch secretary around the same time and in almost similar circumstances in neighbouring Koothuparamba.
Prohibitory orders were in force in Koothuparamba when the death of Mohanan, the CPI(M) activist, seems to have been avenged through the killing of Rimith, a 29-year-old BJP worker.
Both the incidents have taken place within the limits of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Dharmadom Assembly constituency.
This is the seventh political murder to have been reported from Kannur district in over four months of rule by the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government.
The BJP has called for a State-wide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Thursday to protest the ‘unabated wave of killings in Kannur’ ever since the Pinarayi government assumed charge.
In a statement, State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan said Rimith’s murder took place within earshot of Vijayan’s ancestral house in Pinarayi.
This is the latest gory testimonial of a despicable regime of blood-letting let loose by goons and vigilantes at the instance of the CPI(M) warlords, he added.
He recalled that Rimith was the son of Uthaman, a BMS activist who was pulled out of the bus that he was driving and done to death in full public view in 2002.
What baffles political observers is that the blood-letting has erupted despite the police being on a high alert in Kannur district for over a month. Security had been tightened after preventive raids by the police unearthed a huge cache of arms and ammunition from various places in the district.
Over 60 explosions had been reported from Kannur and neighbourhood in recent times, and this led the State government to ramp up security and conduct raids.