The brutal murder of two youths — one an ABVP functionary and the other a Youth Congress leader — within a span of 25 days in the first two months of this year have shattered the peace dreams of the people of Kannur district that long back earned the discomforting sobriquet ‘Kerala’s political killing field’ due to its five-decade history of ruthless political violence involving almost all the major parties.
If the first murder of the year – of ABVP functionary Shyam Prasad (24) on January 19 by activists of Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) – was a shocker as it had happened after a period of relative peace of eight months, the latest killing of Youth Congress leader SP Shuhaib (29) allegedly by CPI(M) killers on February 12 has virtually confirmed their fear that peace may not dawn on Kannur in near future.
“Our anxiety is not unfounded,” says Sasidharan, a retired Government servant from Thalassery, Kannur. “We have been living amidst this political madness for five decades. Even a half century after the “culture” of murderous violence began here, the political parties are still not feeling the need of putting an end to it. If it is not madness, what else is thatIJ” he asks.
Violence has led to the loss of nearly 225 human lives in violence of unimaginable nature in Kannur in the past 49 years. The history of political murders in Kannur started with the ruthless killing of RSS activist Vadikkal Ramakrishnan by CPI(M) men on April 28, 1969. Today’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is still in the shadow of suspicion over that murder.
Since then, almost all political parties – CPI(M), BJP-RSS, Congress and Muslim league – have lost activists and leaders and have indulged in the politics of violence. “No party can claim innocence in converting Kannur into a political killing field,” says Ramesan Nambiar, a businessman from the Panur area, perhaps the epicenter of CPI(M)-RSS violence in Kannur.
The CPI(M) which has invariably been one side of every incident of political conflict in Kannur got its first martyr in the inhuman series of blood-letting when its local committee member at Mangattidam UK Kunhiraman was killed while defending a mosque on January 4, 1972 during the Thalassery riots.
The period between 1970 and 1980 was known for the conflicts between the CPI(M) and the Congress in Kannur. It was the time when Congress leader K Sudhakaran, former MP, had shown the courage to take on the Marxists. Allegations and counter-allegations between the Congress and the CPI(M) over the incidents of that period are yet to come to an end.
The start of 1980s saw the replacement of the Congress by the RSS in the conflicts with the Marxists and that is continuing even today. Since then, it has been the eye-for-eye, blood-for-blood kind of politics in Kannur. “Even today, the CPI(M) and the RSS-BJP are arguing with each other on which side has suffered bigger human loss,” says Ramesan Nambiar.
Meanwhile, the family of Shuhaib, the Youth Congress leader hacked to death by a Marxist killer gang at Edayannur near Mattannur in Kannur on the night of February 12, on Saturday demanded a CBI probe into the incident in the context of the failure of the State police to arrest the culprits even after five days.
“We are not satisfied with the police investigation,” Shuhaib’s father Muhammad told the media. “The police have not even cared to visit us or to record our statement in these five days. Isn’t it their duty to do soIJ After all, it is my son who was killed. If this is their approach, I don’t think we will get justice. There should be a CBI probe,” Muhammad, a Gulf returnee, said.
Sharmeena, one of the three sisters of Shuhaib, said that the family did not think that the CPI(M) would be cruel enough to take her brother’s life. “There were threats against him. Even he used to say that. But we never thought they would kill him. Even he had not thought they would kill him,” Sharmeena said.
At the same time, the police have launched an intense search for Shuhaib’s killers in the CPI(M)-controlled “party villages” in the Peravoor and Iritti areas, according to reports from Kannur. About 200 police personnel led by four Circle Inspectors and 30 Sub-Inspectors were carrying out the searches which was being coordinated by district police chief G Siva Vikram.
