There seems to no lull in the bloody saga of political killings in Kerala. The latest in is the murder of Sanoop, 26, a CPI(M) branch secretary. The killers, according to police, are activists of Bajrang Dal.
Sanoop, a popular leader in the locality, was a dalit. He was an orphan and has been closely affiliated to the CPI(M) since his student days. The attack took place on Sunday night at Eayal near Kunnamkulam. The attack is said to be the outcome of the prevailing tension between the two sides for some time in Thrissur district. The victim and team were waylaid by the opposite gang when they reached the vicinity to take one of their friends, identified as Mithun, to his house. Three others who were accompanying Sanoop, too, have been attacked and hospitalised.
Sanoop's is the fourth political murder in the last 45 days. Incidentally, all them were CPI(M) activists. Earlier murders were that of two activists of the CPI(M)-led youth wing DYFI, allegedly by Congress workers in Venjaramoodu in Thiruvananthapuram district last month, And prior to that, one Siyad in Alappuzha district was killed.
That all these killings happened in south Kerala is a new phenomenon in state politics as it is the north or Malabar region, mostly Kannur district, which was infamous for political murders so far. As per statistics, nearly 60 per cent of political killings have happened in Kannur.
“It is a fact that Kannur is relatively safe these days. This is primarily due to increasing sentiments among the people in Kannur against violence,'' Satheeshan Pacheni, Kannur DCC president, told THE WEEK.
According to figures available with the police, 173 political murders have happened in Kerala since 2000. Of these, CPI(M) has lost 86 workers, BJP has lost 65, and Congress and Muslim League together have lost 11 activists.
“Though the media tries to portray CPI(M) as the 'killer party', you will get a different picture if you go by the statistics. It is the CPI(M) members who have always become victims of the combined attack by the Congress and the RSS,'' M.B. Rajesh, former CPI(M) MP, told THE WEEK.
Congress leader Jyothikumar Chamakkala insisted that Congress is against all political violences. “By principle and practice, Congress is against such heinous activities,'' he said. Chamakkala insisted that the two previous cases where three CPI(M) activists were hacked to death were not political murders.
“They were clashes between two warring factions. Those were not political murders,'' he said.
BJP state president K. Surendran, however, said that BJP has no role in the political killings. “None of our members are part of this murder,'' Surendran said.
