In yet another incident of alleged political violence in Kerala’s Kannur district, a CPI(M) worker was hacked to death on Monday at his workplace.
Toddy shop worker Kuzhichalil Mohanan (40), a member of the CPI(M) local committee in Paduvilayi near Pathiriyad, was hacked to death on Monday morning by a six-member gang at his shop at Valankichal. Eyewitnesses said that the six masked men had come in a Maruti Omni vehicle.
Though Mohanan was taken to the Cooperative Hospital in Thalassery, he succumbed to the injuries on the way. Asokan, another worker at the toddy shop, suffered injuries in the attack. CPI(M)’s Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan alleged that RSS-BJP activists were behind the murder.
The CPI(M) will observe a dawn-to-dusk shutdown in Kannur district on Tuesday in protest against the killing of the party worker. However, party leaders said vehicles would not be blocked. The CPI(M) had observed a shutdown in the Dharmadom Assembly constituency area from noon to evening on Monday.
This was the second political murder to occur in Kannur, known as Kerala’s Marxist heartland, in the past 40 days. Suspected CPI(M) workers had hacked to death an RSS-BJP activist, Vineesh (27) of Mavila, Thillankery near Iritti in the district on September 3. Eight days before that, an RSS Mandalam Karyavahak, Sugesh (33), and three other RSS activists had suffered hack injuries at Kadukkappalam near Muzhakkunnu in an attack allegedly carried out by CPI(M) workers.