28 communist terrorists also involved in Maradu carnage

Kozhikode, Sept 26: Reacting to media reports on the “disclosures” made by the Marad judicial inquiry commission, the BJP in Kerala on Tuesday urged the LDF government to order “without any delay” a CBI probe into the largescale violence at Marad beach near here in May 2003 that claimed nine lives.

“The BJP and other Hindu organisations’ repeated demand that the massacre should be probed only by a central agency has been vindicated by the (inquiry) report and the government should not waste further time in ordering such a probe”, BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai told reporters here.

Noting that his party was of the firm opinion that only a agency like the CBI could effectively probe the “conspiracy angle” that led to the killings besides tracing the involvement of suspected extremists organisations, Pillai said the crime branch failed to probe such primary issues.

Claiming that as many 28 communist party activists were named as accused in the violence, he expressed fear that the CPI(M), now heading the ruling front, might try to protect them by misusing the official machinery.

“Stern action should be initiated against those officials who earlier tried to protect the CPI(M) volunteers responsible for the incident”, he said, adding while the accused list also comprised activists of the IUML and the Muslim extremist outfit National Development Front (NDF),”not a single activist of the BJP or RSS” was stated to be involved in the attack.

The Thomas P Joseph Commission was appointed by the previous Congress-led UDF government to study and submit a detailed report on the May 2003 massacre that followed the January 2002 violence in the same area in which five persons were killed.

The report is likely to be placed in the State Assembly soon.