In a horrific incident in Kannur district, described often as the Marxists’ killing fields of Kerala, a 29-year-old RSS-BJP worker was brutally attacked by alleged CPI(M) activists at Chokli on Tuesday. AV Biju, an autorickshaw driver who was taking four students of classes 1 and 2 to school, sustained severe injuries.
The petrified children watched in horror as their autorickshaw was waylaid, the driver dragged out and attacked with swords and knives by six men. Biju, who suffered multiple injuries, was rushed to a local hospital and later taken to the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode.
“He suffered eight deep wounds on his hands and back and has lost a lot of blood. A case of attempt to murder has been lodged against the assailants,” police said.
Tuesday’s incident was the latest in a frightening series of such incidents in Kannur, which has a long history of clashes among different political parties, but mainly between the CPI(M) and the BJP-RSS. Suspected CPI(M) workers had on the night of February 16 hacked RSS-BJP worker Sujith (27) to death in front of his parents and brother inside his house in Pappinisseri.
In another incident of unimaginable brutality, a Marxist gang had on December 1, 1999 hacked to death with swords and knives, then State Yuva Morcha vice-president KT Jayakrishnan, a primary schoolteacher. The assailants attacked the teacher in front of Class 6 students at the East Mokeri UP School in Panur.
The attack on Biju within 20 days of Sujith’s murder has triggered panic in the sensitive areas of Kannur, particularly in view of the upcoming Assembly elections, when violence usually escalates in the district.