CPM attack ‘Mangalam’ in response to Jihadi Terrorist attack!

Hartal in Kannur; CPM unleashes violence

PNS | Kannur

Under the cover of a hartal called to protest the killing of a party activist by suspected NDF (Popular Front) workers on Thursday, the CPI(M) unleashed violence in Kannur on Friday just when few hours were left for the announcement of the results of the 15th Lok Sabha election.

The Marxist party activists attacked the office of Mangalam newspaper by 11 am on Friday. The paper’s bureau chief TK Joshi and Krishnan Kanjirangad were admitted to the hospital with injuries suffered in the attack.

Newspaper employees said that the trouble-makers had first come to warn them not to open the office, saying that no newspaper office should open when the CPI(M) was observing a hartal. The activists came back with a stronger group and started the attack, ransacking the office, destroying furniture and breaking windowpanes.

Joshi and Krishnan suffered injuries when they tried to block the activists from doing this. Almost everything in the office, including computers, was destroyed. Journalists’ fraternity in Kannur said that the Marxists had used the hartal as a cover for the attack against Mangalam, but the actual reason for their provocation was a report the paper published in its Friday edition about the CPI(M).

The CPI(M) had attacked the district bureau office of Mangalam newspaper on February 14 in connection with the coverage of party State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan’s Nava Kerala Yathra. Mangalam, according to the CPI(M), was a newspaper that published stories against the Left regularly.

Sanoop, Mangalam’s Palakkad district reporter, had enraged the CPI(M) local leaders with a question he posed at a Press meet to Pinarayi Vijayan. The question related to the connection of a local industrialist with a corruption case pertaining to a public sector undertaking. CPI(M) Palakkad district secretary P Unni had called Sanoop on his mobile phone to ask him about the source of his report published in the paper on the night of the attack.

Pro-hartal activists attacked several other establishments also in the area. Windowpanes of the head post office, the municipal office and a counter of the National Insurance Company in Kannur town were also damaged by the agitators.

The hartal in Kannur municipality and five surrounding panchayaths was called by the Kannur area committee of the CPI(M) in protest against the killing of their activist OT Vineesh (25) of Arayambath by suspected NDF activists.

Vineesh was hacked by assailants on Wednesday night and he succumbed to injuries on Friday afternoon. His brother Vimal (23) and another youth Jalesh had also been injured in the attack. The attack on Vineesh, son of Vinayakan and Premaja, had taken place at Kunnunkai, Puthiya Theru, Kannur.

The Valapattanam police registered cases against Popular Front activists Manaf (24) and Noufal (23) in connection with the attack against Vineesh and others. Superintendent of Police Sethuraman said that the accused would also be charged with provisions of the Anti-Goonda Law.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed in the Kunnumkai area where Vineesh and his companions were attacked even on Friday. Houses of six activists belonging to both the organisations – CPI(M) and the Popular Front – came under bomb attack on Thursday night and early Friday morning.

The houses of P Ramesh Babu, local committee secretary of the CPI(M), Chirakkal and neighbour and party colleague Prakasan of Arippodiyan came under bomb attack on early Friday morning. Both attacks took place simultaneously at 4.00 am.

Ramesh Babu said that a gang of about 20 armed men had hurled bombs at the house after encircling it. The windowpanes of the house were broken in the attack. He said the assailants hurled explosives into the house through the broken windows. His wife and children escaped the attack by confining themselves to the upper floor of the house.

Ramesh Babu said that the gang later left the place after shouting threatening words. The plumbing of the house had also been destroyed. They also hurled bombs at the house of Prakasan and damaged a maruti car parked in the front. Windowpanes of the house had been broken in the attack.

Bomb attacks had taken place on Thursday night on the houses of those listed as accused by the police in the attack against Vineesh and others. The attacks were on the houses of Manaf, Noufal and Sumeer and the relative of an accused. However, no casualties had occurred in these attacks.