The Killing Fields of Kannur

The chief minister’s home district accounts for nearly all the political murders in the state

- Jeemon Jacob

Three politically motivated murders in three days turned October into the bloodiest of recent months in Kerala. On the 10th, K. Mohanan, 52, a local CPI(M) leader, was hacked to death by suspected RSS activists in Pathiriyad village, part of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Dharmadom assembly constituency. A gang of six sword­wielding assailants hacked him 14 times in a toddy shop. On October 12, Remith Uthaman, a 30­year­ old RSS worker, was hacked to death in front of his mother and pregnant sister in Pinarayi, the CM’s native village.

On October 13, Farook Neerchal, 45, a Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) worker, was hacked to death in Kannur town. SDPI, the political wing of the radical Muslim outfit, Popular Front of India, has pointed a finger at the Indian Union Muslim League, a constituent of the Congress­ led United Democratic Front in the state. Six political mur­ders have rocked the state’s red bastion Kannur since the CPI(M)­led Left Democratic Front came to power in May, with the Marxists’ toll at three, the Sangh two.

Kannur district today is in the grip of an uneasy calm.The police remain on alert, raids and arrests continue, but a wariness seeps through it all. Over the years, violence has been sparked by the smallest of provocations—a missing party flag, an altercation at a bus stop, a casual remark directed at a party leader, even the defacing of a ‘party wall’.